Beauty behemoth Mecca cracks $1b in sales as | Australian Markets
Australia’s largest cosmetics retailer Mecca has cracked the $1 billion income barrier as persistent cost-of-living pressures fail to dent client urge for food for make-up, skincare and fragrances.
New filings to the company regulator revealed the Jo Horgan-founded business raked in simply over $1.2b in income in the 12 months to the tip of December 2023, up from the $971.5m recorded in the earlier 12 months. Net revenue rose from $26.9m to $27.8m.
Having first launched Mecca with a single store in Melbourne’s South Yarra in 1997, Ms Horgan and her husband and co-founder, Peter Wetenhall, have put Mecca in nearly all main malls and store fronts in rich suburbs round Australia.
Nationally, it has a footprint of more than 100 shops — together with seven in Perth — and a presence online. It sells more than 200 manufacturers throughout classes together with make-up, skincare, perfume and hair care.
A Mecca spokeswoman declined to remark concerning the retailer’s financial efficiency.
Despite increased rates of interest and inflation forcing households to cut back on different discretionary objects, Australians’ urge for food for cosmetics and wonder merchandise seems to be holding up. Experts have dubbed it the “lipstick effect”.
Reportedly coined by magnificence giant Estee Lauder’s former chair, who seen an increase in the sale of lipstick during the US recession of the late Nineties, the lipstick impact displays the concept that shoppers will flip to small indulgences in instances of financial downturn after they can’t afford bigger luxuries.
Mecca in latest years has confronted hypothesis over whether or not the co-founders would put the business up for sale. A company spokesperson has beforehand denied Ms Horgan was considering a sale.
According to the latest accounts launched this week, Ms Horgan and Mr Wetenhall — each listed as administrators of Mecca — didn’t pay themselves any dividends. In 2022, the pair pocketed $12m.
Mecca holds the largest market share in make-up in Australia at about 21 per cent, which far outstrips that of Sephora, the cosmetics chain owned by French luxurious items giant LVMH.
Sephora’s Australian division reported a loss of $13.6m in 2023, whereas online magnificence retailer Adore Beauty, one other main industry participant, reported income of $195.7m in the 2024 financial 12 months.
ASX-listed Adore Beauty has signalled its intention to open more than 25 shops nationally within the subsequent three years.
It has already opened two in Victoria.
Mecca’s 2023 accounts — which had been late by about a 12 months — come as the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday revealed family spending posted a modest 0.1 per cent raise to $75.7b in April, persevering with the run of softer client spending knowledge to date in 2025.
Contributing to the growth was a raise in spending in inns, cafes and eating places (up 2.2 per cent), health (up 1.7 per cent) and recreation and tradition (up 1.1 per cent), seemingly fuelled by back-to-back Easter and Anzac public holidays in April.
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