Matthew Moulding, the CEO of THG says the group has saved over £200m through job cuts and “doubling down” on AI and robotics over the last 3 years.
He said that they’d reduced headcount from around 10,200 to 6,300 by the end of 2024.
In the update he admitted that to say 2024 was a year of change, was “a hideous understatement.”
He said that the company had been impacted by Covid and shocks to the global economy, which meant that they had to “pull apart THG’s business models, turn them upside down and rebuild them again.
“This process has seen us exit various businesses/markets – from entertainment to luxury apparel, and even some smaller beauty brands. We’ve restructured global operations/offices and doubled down on investment in robots and AI.”
While THG has cut jobs, Moulding said that it had reinvested some of the savings in staff, with salaries rising 40% to an average of £51k.
“This costs THG over £100m each year,” he stated.
Moulding also touched on the global rebranding and repositioning of Myprotein at the start of last year, as it sought an “assault on the offline market.”
However, it coincided with a spike in commodity prices (specifically whey protein) which reduced its margins by almost £50m.
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“All this led to THG delivering FY 2024 Revenues of £1.9bn and underlying profits of £123.1m, both slightly ahead of 2023. Without the initiatives of the last 3 years the numbers would have been very different,” he continued..
“After a tough year of change across Myprotein, it’s a relief to see a much-improved start to 2025. Last year’s global rebrand is now paying dividends. Myprotein is back in growth, growing momentum each month, with offline sales proving especially successful.”
The start of this year saw the demerger of THG Ingenuity “by far the biggest initiative we’ve ever undertaken.”
“Ingenuity had its own extensive and disruptive model overhaul in 2023/24, before leaving THG,” said Moulding.
“At the end of 2024 a small army of retail investors agreed to join me in taking ingenuity private.”
Its Q1 performance showed revenue was up 2.3% to $207.7m, while EBITDA over the same period increased +2.3% to $£9.4m.
He said that this “great Q1” was largely driven by progress within its robotics and fulfilment division.
Moulding concluded that Ingenuity was “well on track” to deliver revenues of $900m and underlying profits of $60m for the year end.
