The Hut Group’s (“The Hut”) addition of Myprotein.com (“Myprotein”) further broadens its Health & Beauty offering while providing Myprotein with access to both The Hut’s highly regarded technology platform and its 6m customer database.

Myprotein, founded by Chief Executive Officer Oliver Cookson in 2004, operates through sites in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland and Spain, markets in which The Hut has a strong presence.

The deal follows The Hut’s proven strategy of using its best in class technology platform to operate multiple branded websites focused on selling fast moving consumer goods with high levels of repeat purchase. The deal also complements The Hut’s market leading male style and grooming website, mankind.co.uk, and provides opportunities to build on The Hut’s success in cross-marketing to its customers across all of its websites.

These sites include TheHut.com, lookfantastic.com, IWantOneOfThose.com Mankind.co.uk and Zavvi.com and are supported by the Group’s own end-to-end technology and operating platform.

Following the deal, Mr Cookson will join the Group as a Board Director and head The Hut’s enlarged Lifestyle Division.

Matthew Moulding, founder and CEO of The Hut Group, commented: “Myprotein.com is an outstanding business which we are delighted to welcome to the Group. Opportunities to partner with businesses of the scale of Myprotein that are continuing to grow rapidly in 2011 are few and far between, especially in this economic climate. It’s also a great advantage to be adding both the experience and expertise of Oliver Cookson, as well as the talented management team that have helped deliver such an impressive market position across Europe.

The addition of Myprotein to The Hut’s operating platform is another milestone in our ambitions to become one of Europe’s leading online players. The team at The Hut are looking forward to working together with Oliver in further developing and delivering Myprotein’s international growth plans.”

Oliver Cookson, founder and CEO of Myprotein, said: “I have immensely enjoyed the journey of helping to build Myprotein into the market leading business it is today and I am truly excited at the prospect of joining forces with The Hut Group, which is a business I have admired for a number of years. Myprotein’s range of award winning products coupled with The Hut’s leading technology platform and expansive customer base will help take Myprotein a step closer to becoming Europe’s leading sports nutrition brand.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the management and employees who have helped achieve what is a great growth story. However, for them and for me, this isn’t the end of the journey, it is the start of a new and what I am sure will be an equally, if not more, exciting one.”

The Hut’s legal adviser on the deal were Gateley’s, led by partner Paul Jefferson & supported by Jemma Bolton. The Hut team comprised Steven Whitehead, James Pochin and Darren Rajanah. Myprotein was advised by the Manchester office of Altium Capital, the team comprising Simon Lord, Andy Clarke and Phil Frame. Mr Cookson was advised by Addleshaw Goddard, led by partner Jim Tully and supported by Duncan Wilson.

ENQUIRIES:

Hudson Sandler Andrew Hayes/Andrew Leach/Kate Hough Tel: 020 7796 4133

Notes to the editor:

About The Hut Group

The Hut is the UK’s leading multi-product, multi-website online retailer with rapidly growing international operations. Founded in 2004 by CEO Matthew Moulding, it is focused on selling fast moving consumer goods that are non-perishable with high levels of repeat purchase. Products span health and beauty, gifting, entertainment, fashion, bags and footwear.

The Hut has developed its own best in class end-to-end technology platform supporting its multiple websites including:

TheHut.com lookfantastic.com Zavvi.com Mankind.co.uk Gifted.com IWantOneOfThose.com MyBag.co.uk MyLabel.co.uk AllSole.com HQhair.com

“This is an excellent and most welcomed opportunity for me to continue to grow the Games and product marketing category across our portfolio, as well as lead the development in new product sectors like health and beauty, fashion and more. My new team means I’ll have the resource to find more on-pack and promotional deals with mass-market FMCGs and find brands who’d like to engage with our 2.5m active customers directly through our media sales channels” commented, Sarah Jasper

Matt Moulding, The Hut Group’s CEO said, “Sarah has played a pivotal marketing role within our senior team, and has shown the ability to take on a broader senior role in the Group. This role broadens Sarah’s reach across all our product categories with continued development and execution of tactical product planning, as well as multi site brand development.”

The Hut Group, who ranked number 1 in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 of the UK’s fastest growing companies, delivers online retail solutions across a wide range of product categories including entertainment, gifts, fashion and health & beauty. The Hut Group operates its own websites TheHut.com, Zavvi.com, Gifted.com, Washbag.com and more.

Health & Beauty has been identified as a key market for The Hut Group which intends to deliver a market leading retail proposition across Europe through its own site, Washbag.com.

Washbag.com has been launched today with the clear message of delivering consumers a better experience than currently available online, based around service, experience & value.

Washbag.com will offer Free Delivery as standard, a completely unique offer against existing competitors. The free delivery service is a core value proposition across the portfolio of websites run by The Hut Group.

Using The Hut Group’s existing technology platform, infrastructure and relationships, Washbag.com is expected to become one of the largest online retailers within the Male Grooming market within 12 months.

Results from recent website launches support these ambitious growth plans. MyBag.co.uk was launched 10 weeks ago by The Hut Group and has made a significant impact on the Handbag & Accessories market. Global market intelligence expert, Experian Hitwise, confirmed that MyBag.co.uk has already taken a 10% market share since launch and continues to show rapid growth.

Commercial Director, Richard Chapple, commented: “The Hut Group’s ethos is to deliver market beating service, experience and value to UK & European consumers. The exciting launch of Washbag.com is a further step in our expansion, both organically and through acquisition, in to a broad range of fast moving consumer sectors including Health & Beauty, Sports, Footwear, Fashion and Toys.”

About The Hut Group

Founded in 2004 and based in Northwich Cheshire, The Hut Group is an online retailing platform focused on fast moving consumer goods including Entertainment (Games, DVDs, CDs, Books), Electricals, Health & Beauty, Footwear, Gifting, Accessories, Toys, Underwear & Sports.

The Hut Group retails online through its own sites, including TheHut.com, Zavvi.com and MyBag.co.uk.

In 2009, The Hut Group was ranked no.1 in the ‘Sunday Times Tech Track 100 of the UK’s fastest growing companies’ and ranked the 3rd fastest growing digital company in Europe at the ‘GP Bullhound Media Momentum Awards’ in May 2010.

For further information, please visit TheHutGroup.com

Please find below a list of websites operated by The Hut Group’s retailing platform. For more information please visit their websites.

TheHut.com, Zavvi.com, MyBag.co.uk, Gifted.com, Washbag.com

Following very successful trading on TheHut.com, handbags and fashion accessories have been identified as a key growth area for The Hut Group which now intends to deliver a market leading retail proposition across Europe through its own site, MyBag.co.uk.

Using The Hut Group’s existing technology platform, infrastructure and relationships, MyBag.co.uk is expected to become a leading handbag and fashion accessories retailer over the next 2 years. Launching today (Thursday 8th April 2010), MyBag.co.uk will focus on key trends, brands and delivering consumers better value than they are currently receiving elsewhere.

As part of The Hut Group’s move into FMCG product areas, other sectors currently under review include Sports, Health & Beauty, Footwear and Toys.

More Information about MyBag.co.uk

Current Product Categories:

Handbags
Purses & Wallets
Jewellery
Sunglasses
Fashion scarves
Hair Accessories
Belts
Umbrellas

Current Brands:

Ameko: Handbags and purses
And Mary: Jewellery and purses
Bench: Bags and wallets
Max C London: Handbags and belts
Mischa Barton: Handbags
Nica: Handbags and purses
Red or Dead: Handbags
Ri2k: Handbags and purses
Suzy Smith: Handbags and purses
Yumi: Handbags and fashion scarves
Mimco: Handbags and purses
Lipsy: Handbags and jewellery

Price Points

Handbags: £8 (canvas shopper) up to £200 (Leather grab bag)
Belts: from £15
Jewellery: from £8
Purses: from £9
Scarves: from £12
Sunglasses: from £9
Umbrella’s: from £9

About The Hut Group
Founded in 2004 and based in Northwich Cheshire, The Hut Group is an online retailing platform focused on fast moving consumer goods including Entertainment (Games, DVDs, CDs, Books), Electricals, Health & Beauty, Footwear, Gifting, Accessories, Toys, Underwear & Sports.

The Hut Group retails online through its own sites, including TheHut.com and Zavvi.com.

In 2009, The Hut Group was ranked no.1 in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 of the UK’s fastest growing companies.

For further information, please visit TheHutGroup.com

Please find below a list of websites operated by The Hut Group’s retailing platform. For more information please visit their websites.

TheHut.com, Zavvi.com

“This is fantastic opportunity for me to continue to grow the DVD and Blu-ray categories across our portfolio, but lead all the entertainment product categories to deliver better processes and closer relationships with our supplier base, which will benefit business and most importantly our millions of customers” commented, Markus Bhatia.

The Hut Group, now reporting to OCC has seen its market share in DVD & Blu-ray increase by over 150% in the last 6 months,

Matt Moulding, The Hut Group’s CEO said, “Markus is incredibly well respected in the entertainment industry and has delivered considerable incremental growth with DVD & Blu-ray since joining us, he’s an asset and I’m pleased to have him in our senior team, delivering the same expansion in Games, Music & Books”

About The Hut Group

Based in Northwich, Cheshire, The Hut Group was established in 2004 by entrepreneurs, Matthew Moulding and John Gallemore.

The Hut Group also has two successful etail brands within its portfolio. TheHut.com is a multi-channel retailer offering a variety of home entertainment and lifestyle products, such as DVDs, Blu-ray and CDs, as well as lingerie, cosmetics and sports and leisure equipment.

High street brand Zavvi was acquired by The Hut Group in March 2009 and is now a thriving online-only retailer. The refreshed Zavvi website offers customers a wider choice of entertainment products, with free delivery.

A Sunday Times Tech Track company, The Hut Group is the fastest growing technology company in the North West and is ranked 8th in the UK.

For further information, please visit TheHut.com, Zavvi.co.uk or TheHutGroup.com or follow us on Twitter: @thehut_com and @zavvionline

Stats revealed in a poll by the online retailer showed that more than 81 per cent of Brits are planning to do their Christmas shopping online this year and 71 per cent of people still think online shopping is the best way to buy Christmas presents.

The online retailer expects to ship over 5 million parcels in December representing over 6000 tonnes of goods that will include everything from DVDs to video games, CDs to Books & Electronics to Underwear.

Sales figures from Monday 23rd November show that online shopping for the festive season has already started with The Hut Group recording their busiest day ever, with 1600 orders a minute coming through at the peak time of 8-9pm.

The Hut Group, who ranked number 1 in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 of the UK’s fastest growing companies, has two thriving retail brands, The Hut.com and Zavvi.com.

The Group has seen a sales increase of over 400% year on year from £25m in 2008 with innovative trading techniques and an aggressive customer acquisition strategy through new routes to consumers like its ‘Ebay Outlet’ which has seen over 20,000 orders in its first 3 weeks of trading and is well on track meet its turnover targets

“Monday’s are always the busiest day for online shopping, and this will be a record breaking period for The Hut Group” comments Richard Chapple, Commercial Director. “In the recession, when every penny counts, The Hut Group’s sites will be offering customers more value and better prices on the must have products than ever before.”

For further enquiries regarding The Hut Group or any of our sites please contact us here or alternatively, phone us on 01606 338197.

About The Hut Group

Based in Northwich Cheshire, The Hut Group is a successful ecommerce provider founded in 2004 by Matthew Moulding and John Gallemore.

With two thriving retail brands, TheHut.com and Zavvi.com, The Hut Group has emerged as an online retail success story having averaged 189 per cent growth over the last 4 years.

In October 2009, The Hut Group was ranked number one in The Sunday Times ‘Tech Track 100’, making it the fastest-growling private technology firm in the UK.

For further information, please visit TheHut.com, or TheHutGroup.com

The Woolworths brand*, bought by Shop Direct owners the Barclay brothers earlier this year, will not re-open its stores and has instead embraced an online business strategy. Woolworths’ online-only product range moves the business away from general merchandise and homeware to concentrate on entertainment products, children’s clothes and gifts, and its Ladybird clothing range.

Matthew Moulding, CEO at The Hut Group, says, “Woolworths is an established brand that is recognised throughout Britain. This year marks Woolworths’ 100th year in the retail industry, so we’re proud to be part of the brand’s revival and enable the business to offer the products that it is famous for. Our white label service will ensure Woolworths provides an excellent customer experience, from searching and browsing for products to the physical delivery of goods.”

The Hut Group offers retailers an end-to-end ecommerce solution that delivers a fully managed service with the technology to provide a reliable transactional website for any online retail operation.

* Woolworths is a trading name of Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited. The Woolworths and Ladybird brands run alongside Shop Direct Group’s other brands, including Littlewoods, Empire and Great Universal.

In partnership with The Hut, the site will enable Argos to enter a popular market and offer a large choice of CDs and DVDs to customers shopping online. The new website offers 125,000 titles of both chart and back catalogue lines all with free delivery.

Dominic Starkey, Head of ecommerce at The Hut Group, adds, “We are delighted to be working with Argos, one of the country’s most respected brands and retailers. We are particularly excited about the opportunities for helping the company increase its Entertainment products range.”

Karen Bray, marketing director for Argos said: “Online shopping has become part of everyday life for many of our customers and the entertainment site will offer our customers an increased product choice at a competitive price. The Hut is a good partner for Argos and brings their expertise in the entertainment field to the site”.

The new website launched on 3rd April and will be promoted from the popular, award winning* www.argos.co.uk website homepage. In addition, the Argos database and weekly ‘Gos’ email will be used to raise awareness of the new entertainment offer and targeted promotions to customers.

*Winner of 2009 Retail Week ‘Online Retailer of the Year’.

Staff from The Hut Group, based in Northwich, Cheshire, roared with delight as co-founders John Gallemore and Matthew John Moulding collected the award from Adrian Grace, Bank of Scotland Corporate’s managing director at a ceremony in Manchester’s Imperial War Museum.

The Hut Group, which sells consumer products such as DVDs, computer games and electronics through its own website and will use the prize of a £5m loan, interest-free for three years, to continue its rapid expansion.

Presenting the prize, Grace said The Hut Group had been up against the toughest group of finalists of any region. The other finalists were technology-infrastructure business ANS Group; sports-nutrition and health-food firm Myprotein.com; motoring-services business National Tyres; and Pendine Park, the care organisation.

Thorough preparation in the week before their grilling in front of the judges paid off for The Hut Group’s founding pair. “We spent the week running through the presentation, running through the plan and working out exactly how to present it,” said Moulding.

“We were in it to win so we took the competition very seriously. The competition was very stiff — in fact we would have preferred to have been competing in a different region. I feel a bit numb now but it’s fantastic to have won.”

The Hut Group’s track record of growth from its foundation in 2004 to sales of £27m this year was a decisive factor in its success. “We feel the business in its own right is strong but we also showed the judges our passion for the business and our attention to detail,” Moulding added.

The story of how he and Gallemore founded the business may also have been a factor. “In October 2003 I bought a CD online. It was fantastically cheap and it gave me the idea. We knew nothing about the internet, about retailing or about the product. It’s not easy setting a company up and we mortgaged our houses to do it. We lost £1m in the first two years. That was tough, but we showed we were survivors.

“We were both with the Caudwell Group at the time, which is a challenging environment to be in. Working with an entrepreneur like John Caudwell is an amazing experience and it rubs off on you. We have John to thank. He gave us the income and the chance to reinvest some money.”

The company’s ability to continue growing through a downturn was also part of the message The Hut Group presented to the judges.

Moulding said: “One of our strengths is working with other brands. They let us run their shops and we give them a cheque every month. We’re an aggregator, which is not a bad thing to be in these times. If we were just a small consumer brand on our own there would be a daunting few years ahead.”

Winning the award will help the company to continue its rapid expansion, he said. “We’re going to use the prize money to invest in people, invest in new categories and look at overseas expansion. Winning this award is also going to give us so much credibility in the marketplace.”

The company’s ability to continue growing profitably impressed the judges.

Matthew Riley, chief executive officer of Daisy Communications, the national winner last year, said: “I was impressed by their track record of successful execution and their past with the Caudwell Group, who are hard taskmasters; and they left well-paid jobs, which shows great entrepreneurship.”

Tim Rigg, head of commercial business for Bank of Scotland Corporate in the northwest, said: “We felt that this was a strong and complementary management team. They had been in other businesses, they were well-rounded people and very much in control of the numbers. They were also the sort of guys who would not be afraid to seek advice when they needed to.

“These are entrepreneurs who started from nothing and who showed remarkable growth in the last couple of years. Their strategy of building relationships with blue-chip customers also impressed us and we see the potential to take the business into the next league.”

The Hut Group will join the six other finalists to compete for the title of Britain’s best entrepreneurial business at the Royal Courts of Justice on December 3.

Matthew Moulding, CEO at The Hut Group, comments, “We are absolutely delighted to have won the North West and North Wales final of the Entrepreneur Challenge and look forward to the national final in London. The funding will enable us to dedicate more resource to this area of our business. I am truly excited about the growth opportunities ahead for The Hut and look forward to working with our team of technical experts to provide large retailers with the necessary online requirements.”

The Hut Group will now go forward to the national final of the competition in London, which takes place in December.

The Hut Group also has an online entertainment retail site and sells a range of lifestyle and leisure products including DVDs, books, games consoles and the latest gadgets.

ENDS

About The Hut Group

Based in Northwich, Cheshire, The Hut Group was established in 2004 by Matthew Moulding and John Gallemore. TheHut.com is the fifth largest online entertainment retailer selling home entertainment products such as books, DVDs and games.

A Sunday Times Tech Track company, The Hut Group is the fastest growing technology company in the North West and ranked 8th in the UK.

For further information please contact:
Elizabeth West / Dana Corson
Berkeley Public Relations
Tel: 01629 826942
thehut@berkeleypr.co.uk
www.berkeleypr.co.uk