British billionaire Matthew Moulding got rich on protein powder and DVDs: Report

Britain’s newest billionaire on the block – Matthew Moulding – runs an online retail business that had almost destroyed his personal finances at one time, but has now secured him a place among the world’s richest.

Bloomberg reported that 16 years after Matthew Moulding had co-founded e-commerce operator THG Holdings Limited in 2004, the company surged 25 percent on its trading debut after raising 1.9 billion pounds in Europe’s second-largest listing in 2020 and London’s largest since 2017.

It is unusual for a major tech fortune to perform well in the UK. While several entrepreneurs in e-commerce, video conferencing, and online gaming have benefitted largely amid the coronavirus pandemic, the tech sector in Britain did not chart a similar story. Here, industrialists and landowners were acing the game and occupying top spots as the nation’s richest.

The 48-year-old new billionaire was a student of Economics at the University of Nottingham. He used to work as an accountant for British billionaire John Caudwell before he set up THG – known as The Hut Group then – with John Gallemore. They started with selling CDs and DVDs, but are involved in overseeing a firm operating websites such as Coggles.com and Myprotein.com now.

Colin McLean, chief investment officer, SVM Asset Management, believes THG is currently the “hot stock” because its technology platform offers solutions for big FMCG companies, rather than for its online retail business.

The company is now valued at 6.1 billion pounds after it offered around 376 million shares at 5 pounds each. Moulding owns nearly a quarter of the company whose revenue rose 36 percent to 675.6 million pounds in the past six months to June 30.

Moulding had said in an Instagram post in July: “It has been a lively journey so far, especially in the early years. Thankfully, both PCs and our own websites have come a very long way since 2004.”

First Published on Sep 17, 2020 08:40 pm