Matthew John Moulding (born February 1972) is a British businessman, founder and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

THG plc THG plc, formerly The Hut Group, is a British e-commerce retail company headquartered at Manchester Airport, England. It sells own-brand and third-party cosmetics, dietary supplements, luxury goods, and licensed and personalised products onlin ...

. As of May 2022, he has an estimated net worth of £700 million, down from £1.4 billion in 2021.

Early life

Moulding was born in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, and attended Ss John Fisher and Thomas More Roman Catholic High School in

Colne Colne () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. Located northeast of Nelson, north-east of Burnley, east of Preston and west of Leeds. The town should not be confused with the unrelated Colne Val ...

. Moulding studied

industrial economics In economics, industrial organization is a field that builds on the theory of the firm by examining the structure of (and, therefore, the boundaries between) firms and markets. Industrial organization adds real-world complications to the perfe ...

at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

before going on to qualify as a chartered accountant. His father was a tarmac contractor and his mother an antiques trader.

Career

Before founding The Hut Group, Moulding worked as CFO for the distribution business of Caudwell Group, working directly with

John Caudwell John David Caudwell (born 7 October 1952) is a British billionaire businessman who founded the now defunct mobile phone retailer Phones 4u. He also invests in fashion, real estate and other industries, and chairs Caudwell Children, a children ...

. In 2004, Moulding founded The Hut Group in Manchester, inspired by buying a CD online. He said that he recognised that selling online could be "fundamentally so much cheaper". The company was founded with a £500,000 investment by Matt Moulding and John Gallemore. The company sold CDs and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

s online before creating white-label web stores for large physical retailers, including Asda, Argos Entertainment,

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

and

WHSmith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

. The creation of the iPhone in 2007 undermined this business model and The Hut Group began acquiring internet retailers and moving them into the group's existing systems and warehouses. The company purchased Zavvi in 2009, Lookfantastic in 2010 and Myprotein in 2011. The group focused on beauty and lifestyle products because of the large margins and potential for international scaling. On 16 September 2020, THG floated on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

, the largest IPO on the LSE since 2013. The share price rose in value by 25% on the first day of trading, generating £920m for the company and £961m for the company's owners. After the flotation, Moulding received one of the biggest payouts in UK corporate history of at least £830m in shares. Initially the company's chairman and CEO, Moulding stepped down as chairman in March 2022 following criticism of the THG's governance arrangements.

Personal life

Matthew Moulding is married to Jodie Moulding. They live in

Northwich {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

, Cheshire and have four children. In 2015, Moulding signed a letter supporting the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

in the 2015 general election. In October 2020, Moulding helped create The Moulding Foundation. In April 2021, he announced a donation of £100 million in THG shares to the Foundation. As of May 2022, he has an estimated net worth of £700 million, down from £1.4 billion in 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moulding, Matt 1972 births 20th-century English businesspeople 21st-century English businesspeople 21st-century philanthropists Living people People from Burnley People from Colne Alumni of the University of Nottingham British technology company founders English accountants English billionaires English chief executives English company founders English philanthropists