Palamon completes £20 million funding round for Feelunique.com to fund European expansion
Palamon Capital Partners (“Palamon” or the “Firm”), a pan-European growth investor, today announced that it has completed a £20 million funding round alongside two co-investors for portfolio company Feelunique.com (“Feelunique” or the “Company”), the largest pure-play online retailer of premium beauty products in the UK.
Founded in 2005, Feelunique is a leading online retailer of premium products in haircare, skincare, cosmetics and fragrances, selling full-permissioned stock from all of the major brands including Chanel, Dior, Lancôme and Estee Lauder. Palamon acquired the Company in December 2012 recognising the growth opportunity presented by the significantly underpenetrated online beauty retail sector. Since then, Palamon has strengthened Feelunique’s market position by professionalising its management and investing in infrastructure, including moving the firm’s logistics centre to the UK to accelerate growth in this key market. The UK business has performed extremely well with revenue up 38% and total retail sales for the year ended 31 March 2016 of £65 million, an increase of 23% on the year before.
The full terms of the transaction were not disclosed, however, Palamon committed £5 million to the Company alongside two co-investors. The £20 million of funding will be used to continue driving growth in the UK market and finance expansion in Continental Europe by establishing a local presence in France, Europe’s largest beauty retail market. Feelunique recently acquired Parfumeries Rive Droite, a French perfumery chain with four boutiques across France, including a flagship store in Paris. The Company also opened a local distribution centre and appointed a highly-experienced local executive team. In addition Feelunique recently launched a Chinese website which is operating beyond expectations.
Ricardo Caupers, Partner at Palamon commented: “With the largest range of permissioned stock of any online distributor in the world, Feelunique has already achieved tremendous success and in its home UK market is growing at almost 40% per annum. We are delighted to have completed this funding round which will support the Company in the next stage of its development and fulfil its ambition to become the champion of online premium beauty retail in Europe and beyond.”
Joel Palix, CEO of Feelunique, said: “We are delighted that Palamon have increased their financial commitment alongside two new co-investors at this very exciting time for the business. Our financial results show the strength of the brand in the UK and with strong consumer demand for our unrivalled brand portfolio coming from all corners of the world, it is clear that the business has expansive growth potential. We look to the future with confidence as Feelunique leads with its universal and diverse approach to beauty – one without boundaries.”
Palamon invests in service sector companies from across Europe with the potential to access high levels of growth. Recent transactions include leather accessories brand Il Bisonte, luxury rug retailer The Rug Company and international payments provider Currencies Direct. The Firm has a strong track record of generating co-investment and with this transaction has generated €900 million of co-investment to invest alongside €1.2 billion of equity from its Funds.
