Hairburst manufactures premium hair care and strengthening products including shampoos, vitamins, accessories, and growth and volume serums. The digital native brand is hugely popular with millennials and Gen Z consumers with its Instagram account which has over 1.5 million subscribers. It has a strong online customer base in UK, France, Italy, US, MENA and South East Asia and is growing rapidly within major beauty retailers such as Lookfantastic, Sephora, Holland & Barrett, Boots and Superdrug.

The acquisition of Hairburst marks JD Sports’ first step into the beauty market, with ambitious growth plans to establish Hairburst as an industry leader through further acquisitions of complementary entrepreneurial businesses.

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

Tom Leman said, “We enjoyed working closely with James and Henry throughout the process and were able to share our knowledge of the beauty industry to support them more effectively throughout the sales process. These are exciting times for Hairburst as they join the high-performing team at JD Sports – who themselves gain the native entrepreneurial and digital experience and skills of James, Henry and their colleagues. This is a shining example of the partnership trends we are seeing in the industry as large companies find ways to adapt and change to meet the challenges posed by young, fast growing and disruptive brands. This supports JD’s mission to provide a wider range of goods and services consumed by their major athletic footwear customers. We look forward to continuing to support the combined team in developing this new relationship. “

Samantha Lewis added, “This is another fascinating example of the recent trend for established companies to acquire dynamic, fast-growing companies to diversify into new markets. With both brands well aware of the importance of social media and well known to their target consumers, this partnership will see the merger of the financial strength and global scale of JD Sport with D2C and e-commerce expertise and Hairburst’s 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 primarily those in the lifestyle, health, fitness and beauty industries. Other recent work within this space includes advising Tangle Teezer on its £ 70million management buyout, investment in collagen supplement brand Absolute Collagen and the sale of the brand of Charlotte Tilbury luxury makeup and skin care.

Hairburst has also been advised by Alantra, Sedulo, BDO and EY.