HUT Group chief executive Matthew Moulding has the number one spot in the world in his sights after a ‘landmark’ year.

The online health and beauty retailer is based at Gadbrook Park at Rudheath, and has reported a 33 per cent rise in earnings for 2015.

The company created 630 jobs in the north west by the end of the year, and expects to generate a further two thousand jobs over the next three years.

“I am pleased to report another landmark year for The Hut Group, as we develop into a truly global business and major British export success, with international sales accounting for over 50 per cent of our revenues for the first time,” said Mr Moulding.

“Overall we had a strong performance in 2015, with group revenues up 35 per cent to £334 million and earnings up 33 per cent to £30 million.

“We reached the milestone of eight million customers worldwide, following significant investment in our product offer, delivery options, customer experience and marketing.

“We also successfully launched 22 trading websites during the year, taking the total to 72 websites on our proprietary platform.

“We have continued the evolution of our Beauty model with the acquisitions of beauty brands Mio Skincare in 2015 and Grow Gorgeous in 2016.

“These acquisitions diversify our beauty offering as we continue to develop our sales mix towards own-label, repeat purchase beauty products, and we expect to complete further complementary deals in 2016.

“Our target of becoming the world’s number one in online health and beauty is now firmly in our sights, and we have stepped up our investment in people, technology, logistics and marketing to support the significant global potential of the THG business.”

The company highlighted its continued commitment to investing in infrastructure and people, including the completion of its £120 million distribution and nutrition production centre at Warrington.

During 2015 nine million orders were shipped to 192 countries, and total retail visits increased by 29 per cent, with 324 million total website visitors.

Total unique customers increased to 8.2 million, and international retail visits rose to 115 million.