Cussons heads for St Tropez with its latest buy

The owner of soap brands Imperial Leather and Carex yesterday said it had bought tanning lotion company St Tropez from private equity group LDC for £62.5m.

Manchester-based PZ Cussons, which owns Original Source and Charles Worthington, said it hoped to grow the St Tropez range in the UK and overseas together with its spa brand The Sanctuary.

St Tropez sells some 30 self-tanning products mainly in the UK and Australia and posted pre-tax profits of 7.4m on revenues of 20.7m for the year to the end of July.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Michelle Feeney, chief executive of St Tropez, said she was "thrilled St Tropez was going into such a great home".

PZ Cussons bought The Sanctuary business in 2008, in a deal which included the UK's largest day spa at Covent Garden, as well as a line of personal care products.

A PZ Cussons spokesman said the company hopes to exploit the St Tropez distribution network – which includes Boots, Superdrug, Debenhams, Sainsbury's and John Lewis – to sell its Sanctuary range. He said: "Both brands are predominantly beauty and well-being brands for women. There's an opportunity to grow them together.

"We can take the Sanctuary products into the same distribution chain as St Tropez. There are also opportunities to take the brands together overseas."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

PZ Cussons posted operating profits of 46.2m in Europe for the year to May 31, up from 40.9m, on revenues of 280.8m.

Graham Jones, analyst at Panmure Gordon, said the move was an "excellent acquisition done at an attractive price".

He said the deal offered "good growth potential with high margins" as well as an "even balance of the business across developed and developing markets".

Shares closed down 0.8p at 364p.

Related topics: