Pinsent Masons advises Hairburst on its sale to JD Sports

Hairburst produces premium hair care and strengthening products including shampoos, vitamins, accessories, and growth and volume serums. The digitally native brand is hugely popular with millennials and Gen Z consumers with its Instagram handle boasting over 1.5 million followers. It has a strong online customer base across the UK, France, Italy, US, MENA and SE Asia and is fast growing within major beauty retailers such as Lookfantastic, Sephora, Holland & Barrett, Boots and Superdrug.

The acquisition of Hairburst marks JD Sports’ initial move into the beauty market, with ambitious growth plans to develop Hairburst into a leader within the sector through further acquisitions of complementary entrepreneurial businesses.

The Pinsent Masons team acting on the deal was led by head of Retail and Consumer Tom Leman and included wellbeing lead Samantha Lewis, Josh Willis, Joshua Flew and Paul Galbraith.

Tom Leman said:“We have enjoyed working closely with James and Henry throughout the process and have been able to share our insights into the beauty industry to more effectively support them through the sales process. These are exciting times for Hairburst as they join the highly successful team at JD Sports – who themselves gain the entrepreneurial and digital native experience and skills of James, Henry and their colleagues. This is a brilliant example of the partnering trends we are seeing in the sector as large corporates find ways to adapt and change to meet the challenges posed by young, fast growing and disruptive brands. This supports JDs mission to provide the broader range of goods and services consumed by their core sports footwear customers. We look forward to continuing to support the combined team as they develop this new relationship.”

Samantha Lewis added: “This is yet another intriguing example of the recent trend of established businesses acquiring fast-growing, dynamic companies to diversify into new markets. With both these brands being well versed in the importance of social media and well-known by their target consumers, this partnership will see the merging of JD Sport’s financial power and global scale with Hairburst’s D2C and e-commerce expertise and entrepreneurial approach, enabling them to accelerate the growth of the Hairburst brand both organically and through the acquisition of other health and beauty businesses.”

The Retail & Consumer team at Pinsent Masons is well-known for its experience with high growth brands and predominantly those within the lifestyle, health, fitness and beauty sectors. Other recent work within this space includes advising Tangle Teezer on its £70m management buy-out, investment into collagen supplement brand, Absolute Collagen and the sale of luxury make up and skincare brand, Charlotte Tilbury.

Hairburst was also advised by Alantra, Sedulo, BDO and EY.