The Hut appoints M&A director as it prepares to buy bolt-ons
ONLINE entertainment retailer The Hut Group has appointed a former investment manager for Barclays Private Equity as mergers and acquisitions director.
The Northwich-based business has taken on Steven Whitehead in the newly created role as it plans at least two “bolt-on” acquisitions over the next year.
Mr Whitehead was previously investment manager for Barclay’s Private Equity, based in its Manchester office. Before that he was at Altium Capital, as an assistant director in the corporate finance department.
The company revealed the news as it strenuously denied reports that it was looking to appoint advisers and was planning floatation on the Alternative Investment Market, by the end of the year.
“That’s absolute rubbish, we’ve done nothing of the sort,” a senior director within the company told TheBusinessDesk. “It’s just too soon for us to do that yet.”
As TheBusinessDesk revealed in September, The Hut shunned an investment deal with a private equity house, preferring instead to secure a funding injection from private investors Rick and Carolyn Nevinson, the co-founders of Warrington-based Brookson Group.
Last autumn The Hut was crowned as the UK’s fastest-growing privately-owned technology company by The Sunday Times, with sales growth of an average of 189% over the last three years.
It is expecting sales to rocket from £24m to £90m this year on the back of booming demand from consumers and commercial partners such as Asda, Argos, WH Smith and LoveFilm, for whom it operates e-commerce services.
