Sales are down at Revolution Beauty Group plc as its CEO prepares to depart for a new role in the United States.
For the year ended 28th February 2025, revenues were £141.6m, down 26% year-on-year. The company expects to report FY25 underlying adjusted EBITDA of between £6-6.5m.
The listed retail brand floated in July 2021 with a valuation of almost £500m but is worth less than £14m today, with its share price having fallen 85% in the last 12 months alone.
Lauren Brindley took the reins in September 2023 after Bob Holt OBE was effectively forced out of the role by shareholder Boohoo Group plc following months of boardroom battles.
Revolution reached a settlement with former CEO and co-founder Adam Minto last year, who agreed to pay the sum of £2.9m to the cosmetics brand after it accused him of breaching his fiduciary duties to the company.
Earlier this year it then entered into a confidential settlement with Chrysalis Investments – which had threatened legal action – despite strongly contesting the claims made against it.
Against this backdrop, Brindley has decided to depart for the role of chief merchandising and digital officer at Ulta Beauty, Inc., the largest beauty retailer in the US.
She will step down as group CEO and as a member of the board on 31st May 2025.
A notice to the London Stock Exchange this morning sounded a bullish note, claiming that “FY25 was a transformational year for Revolution Beauty”.
It said it discontinued over 6,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) “to create a scalable and profitable foundation for future growth… the company continues to transition its global retailers onto this core set of products”.
However it admitted that “softness” in the US market and on digital channels had continued into January and February 2025.
It added: “March and April have been softer than planned due primarily to performance weakness in pure play digital retailers (excluding Amazon that continues to grow significantly) and weakened consumer confidence impacting USA performance. Management considers both impacts as short to medium term.
“Given the slower start to the year than planned, management continues to reduce costs in line with performance and to capture the benefits of having a simplified product and brand portfolio.”
Revolution Beauty’s fully £32m revolving credit facility runs to October 2025. The company said its banking partners remain supportive, and that it has been in active and constructive dialogue with them regarding amending and extending the current arrangement.
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