The Hut secures £210m six bank funding deal
ONLINE sports nutrition and well-being retailer The Hut Group has announced a four year, £210m funding deal with six banks.
The group, based in Northwich, has significantly increased its corporate debt facilities, replacing an existing £80m facility and broadened its support base from a three bank club to six.
The revolving credit facility and term loan has been provided by Barclays, HSBC, Santander, Lloyds, RBS and Allied Irish Bank.
The Hut, which is behind the Myprotein brand, as well as Lookfantastic and BeautyExpert, to name few, has already seen a 40% like-for-like increase in sales for the first half of 2015, with earnings growth ahead of this rate.
It said the extra funding would be used for strategic initiatives, including possible M&A, as well as investing in its nutrition production centre – the only one in the UK with a Grade A BRC global standard for food safety.
It added that it will continue to invest in its proprietary technology platform, which generates consumer demand insights from the browsing and transactional data of more than 350 million visits to its websites each year.
Matthew Moulding, chief executive, said: “We are delighted to build on the continued support shown by Barclays, HSBC and Santander and we very much look forward to working with them and our new partners at Lloyds, RBS and AIB.”
He added: “This new facility provides us with a very powerful foundation to further differentiate our business model and expand both in the UK and internationally, with a specific focus on supply chain integration across the health and beauty sectors.”
The following banking teams executed the transaction: Barclays (Richard Faulkner, Glenn Clarke); HSBC (Steve Estill, Tony Dean); Santander (Charlotte Lees, Sean Burke, Andrew Mulliner); Lloyds (Jonathan Beckwith, Kate Grimoldby); RBS (Jacqui Hulme, David Caunce) and AIB (Kieran O’Driscoll, Allister Kyle).
The Hut Group was advised by a team from Addleshaw Goddard,whilst Pinsent Masons advised the syndicate.
