Revolution Beauty co-founder steps down, but revenues are up

Revolution Beauty has announced that its co-founder Tom Allsworth will be stepping down from his position as non-executive chairman, and will be succeeded by the company’s senior non-executive director Derek Zissman.

Zissman joined Revolution on its IPO in July 2021, and had most recently led an independent investigation committee launched in regards to the audits of its financials for FY22.

Following the outcome of the investigation, which found the company to have inflated sales by nine million pounds in order to meet annual targets, Zissman led the structural and governance changes.

Results below forecasted

Alongside this announcement, Revolution Beauty published its delayed FY22 results, for the financial year ended February 28, 2022.

In the report, the firm said that it had set out several adjustments in respect of issues and errors identified, including corrections and restatements for previous financial periods.

For FY22, Revolution Beauty saw its revenues up from 157.64 million pounds to 184.57 million pounds, while its gross profit also increased from 69.9 million pounds to 71 million pounds.

Its operating loss rose from 9.456 million pounds to 38.86 million pounds, while its loss for the period hit 43.72 million pounds, compared to its previous 17.846 million pounds.

Its adjusted EBITDA rose from 13.427 million pounds to 801 million pounds, while its diluted earnings per share dropped from 7.4 pounds to 15.5 pounds.

In a regulatory filing, Zissman said: "The delay in the publication of our FY22 results has clearly been frustrating for all involved. Following the completion of the Independent Investigation and the release of its findings, we continue to take action to ensure we have the right processes and governance in place across our business. We are making significant progress to resolve the issues that were raised.

“Whilst these results are significantly below that forecast by the previous management team to the market, they nevertheless reflect a robust business with a strong brand, loyal following, and significant potential in terms of both sales and profitability.

“We now expect Revolution Beauty to return to normalised trading and to capitalise on its position as a business with outstanding products, talented colleagues, and a loyal customer base."

The company is intending to publish its interim results for the period ended August 31, 2022, within the next two weeks, where an update on FY23 will be outlined.