Growth and investor partner eComplete is on the hunt for its third acquisition.
The Manchester-based eCommerce, which was founded in 2020 by former THG executives Paul Gedman and Andy Duckworth, recently closed its second investment in Liverpool-based Give Me Cosmetics.
It followed its inaugural multi-million pound investment into award-winning eCommerce beauty business CurrentBody, founded by Laurence Newman and Andrew Showman, with CFO Sam Glynn providing real value add.
The company used its latest eCommerce meet-up at KPMG’s Manchester office to provide an update on the Give Me Cosmetics deal and outline their future ambitions.
Andy Duckworth, who previously worked as CEO of Myprotein at THG, said: “We’re on the hunt for our third acquisition. We’re looking for high quality businesses with the potential to be globalised. It’s got to have a strong commercial play behind it but, where there’s work to still do in the businesses.
“We don’t mind imperfect businesses. No business is perfect and we’re here to help current management teams.
“We acknowledge there’s going to be challenges in businesses. We’ve been through those challenges in our own journey of growing turnover from £20m to £350m and we feel we can really support.
“We understand the pitfalls, we’ve made the mistakes and hopefully we can help other management teams avoid those mistakes, this time round.”
He said eComplete can help with everything from marketing, supply chain efficiency and fulfilment.
“It’s not the easiest market at the moment while interest rates are high,” said Duckworth. “Debt and equity deal mixes are hard to pull off but we’re seeing indications that interest rates are changing. We feel now is the time to buy businesses.”
He said CurrentBody and Give Me Cosmetics were the perfect fit for eComplete.
“We liked the profit in the first order at CurrentBody,” explained Duckworth. “99 per cent of first orders are profitable. They’re not reliant on an LTV (lifetime value).
“You’re trained to think about LTV, frequency and repeat but if you’re making money on your first order, the rest of it is a bonus. The C-suite are excellent and we’re able to support them.”
In the case of Give Me Cosmetics, more than 60 per cent of revenue comes from social channels and it’s positioned as one of the UK’s fastest-growing brands on TikTok.
Duckworth said: “Duckworth said: “We love the fact that Give Me Cosmetics is a local business. We’re massive fans of what they’ve done with social marketing. They’re TikTok experts and we think there’s a huge opportunity to globalise that business.”
The other speakers at the event were: Paul Gedman, co-founder of eComplete; Les Yates, M&A and strategy director at eComplete Group; Georgia D’Costa, partnership manager at SellersFi; experienced CFO Paul Masters; Robert Baxter, KPMG head of corporate finance and head of consumer M&A globally; Christine Liu, brand partnership manager at TikTok; Ricky Jennings, head of eCommerce at luxury streetwear brand Represent; and Alex Wright, partnership manager at SHOPLINE.
The event was hosted by BusinessCloud’s executive editor Chris Maguire and there was also a presentation from Knutsford charity Children’s Adventure Farm Trust (CAFT).