Revolution Beauty hails “excellent trading” amid Boohoo takeover announcement
Revolution Beauty has said that trading for the first three months of the 2024 financial year has been “excellent”, as it looks to defend a boardroom takeover from majority shareholder Boohoo.
The cosmetics brand said that during the first quarter of the year ending February 28, 2024, sales have increased 60% year-on-year. It added that gross margins had also improved, up from 41.7% last year to 48.2%.
The group’s earnings (ebitda) on a constant currency basis were £3.5m in the first quarter of the year, up from a loss of £7.4m in the 2023 financial year.
Revolution said this performance demonstrates the quality of its products and consumer offer.
This comes amid increasing pressure from Boohoo, which owns 26.6% of Revolution’s share capital and is looking to vote out a number of Revolution board members and replace them with its own. The proposals would also include a change of CEO.
Boohoo’s stated rationale for the proposed changes is to promote a “switch to growth”. Revolution said it hopes that shareholders are reassured that the current board is “similarly minded” and growth is currently being delivered.
It added that the current trading performance has been delivered at the same time as rectifying the “significant historical issues” that occurred under Revolution’s previous management.
Bob Holt, chief executive officer, said: “The excellent trading performance in the first quarter of the year is testament to the quality of our offer and the strength of our leadership team, and shows that we are delivering on our global retailer strategy. This has been achieved at the same time as fixing the historical issues overseen by previous management and putting in place improved cost controls and processes across the business.
“Revolution Beauty has clear positive momentum and we remain focused on restoring trading in the Company’s shares. We have a strong platform in place to deliver continued profitable growth”.