Warpaint buys Barry M for £1.4m; FY earnings set to drop

(Sharecast News) - Warpaint said on Monday that it has bought cosmetics brand Barry M for £1.4m as it warned that full-year earnings were set to fall in a challenging market. The company, which owns the W7 and Technic brands, among others, has bought Barry M out of administration. It noted that the business had revenue of about £15m in the year ended 28 February 2025.

News of the acquisition came alongside a trading update in which Warpaint warned that adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for 2025 were set to fall to about £22m from £25m a year earlier. Revenue is expected to be about £105m, up from £102m in 2024.

Warpaint said it successfully delivered its expected strong second half rollout programme into new retail outlets, including with Superdrug, Tesco, Boots, Tigota, Etos and CVS.

However, revenue took a circa £3m hit from the closure of Bodycare, which is a significant customer to Technic. It was also impacted by the "challenging" consumer and customer environment and business lost as a result of US tariff uncertainty earlier in the year, which led to stalled momentum in the US.

Chief executive Sam Bazini said: "Looking ahead to the new year, we expect to see a return to organic growth across the group and also expect to be able to update the market on further significant new customer roll outs with our full year results in April. In addition, we are delighted to announce today the acquisition of the Barry M brand, which is expected to accelerate our penetration into key UK retail channels.

"Despite the 2025 results being heavily impacted by the very challenging macroeconomic environment seen during the year, we were pleased with the progress made in many areas of the group. In particular with the Brand Architekts business, which delivered a profit in year one and we look forward to developing the further opportunities we see for this business. Across the group, we remain very well positioned for the future, with a focus on achieving additional improvements in margins and further roll-outs to new retail outlets."

At 0950 GMT, the shares were down 5% at 210p.