Holland & Barrett has set itself an ambitious sales target of £2 billion under its new ownership and it looks for potential foreign acquisitions to help realise its growth plans.
The health food and well-being retailer was acquired by L1 Retail, a retail investment fund controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, for £1.74 billion last year.
Holland & Barrett’s longtime chief executive Peter Aldis has now said the board was in the midst of ironing out a new strategy with L1 Retail.
“When we come up with a strategy and the plans, which we’re working on, the sort of broad goal is that we’d like to see that trebling of the business, with £2 billion worth of revenue, in a 10-year window,” he told Press Association.
“And we’re one year in, by the way – so that will now be a nine-year window.
“So they are pushing hard, like most good owners do, to do the right thing, and the beauty about that is they are willing to invest money to achieve it.”
To expand internationally, Aldis expects Holland & Barrett will acquire some businesses as it continues to grow organically at home in the UK.
“Internationally, we ultimately see the business being bigger outside the UK than within the UK and that is not the case today,” he said.
“So we have small businesses in China, in the Middle East, and we want to make sure we are creating plans to enable them to grow.”
He added that while opening physical stores could be a challenge in some countries, in those circumstances the retailer could be launched online instead.
Holland & Barrett’s most recent Companies House accounts show the retailer made £655.5 million in sales for the year ended September 30 last tear, a year-on-year rise of 7.1 per cent.
However, profit before tax fell from £114.6 million to £72.5 million.
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