Ulta Beauty makes surprise huge expansion

Proceed into any Ulta on a Saturday, and likewise you’ll glimpse the ritual in elephantine swing.

Childhood hovering by the NYX aisle, moms eyeing anti-aging serums, any individual getting their brows tinted in the nook. It’s a combination of chaos and curation: part salon, part Sephora, part drugstore haul.

And for years, it’s been strictly a U.S. phenomenon.

Decided, Ulta’s loyalty program has millions of members. And yes, it dominates in suburbs and strip department stores from wing to wing. But globally? Ulta’s footprint has been usually nonexistent.

That’s what makes this subsequent switch such a shock.

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Due to as a alternative of quietly attempting out a global retailer or easing accurate into a new market, the firm accurate made an aggressive switch — one that skips the trial part entirely.

It’s no longer a subtle shift, and it’s no longer accurate about growth. Right here is ready planting a flag in a new plot...rapid.

The vogue is daring, unexpected, and will model a turning point for the label’s global future.

Despite the result, one thing is obvious: Ulta is able to acquire its first passport model.

Ulta Elegance acquires UK-based Space NK

Ulta Elegance announced it’s acquiring Space NK, a British luxury beauty retailer with 83 stores across the UK and Ireland.

Space NK will proceed to characteristic below its contain name, with CEO Andy Lightfoot and his team staying on to bustle the label. The deal offers Ulta a accurate away presence across the Atlantic without a should contain one thing else from scratch.

Ulta funded the acquisition utilizing cash and its original credit ranking line, and said the switch gained’t impact its other investments for the 365 days.

In other words, this isn’t of endeavor — it’s a calculated acceleration.

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CEO Kecia Steelman called the switch “strategically compelling” and emphasised Space NK’s “differentiated beauty trip” and “tailored product mix.”

Ulta’s been teasing global ambitions for a while now, including deliberate expansions into Mexico and the Center East. But this marks the firm’s first accurate entry into Europe: a market with loads of beauty-savvy consumers and a starvation for more retail innovation.

For Space NK, Ulta offers scale. For Ulta, Space NK offers acquire admission to. And collectively, they acquire a rapid-tracked runway for global pronounce.

Retail slowdown pushes Ulta Elegance toward global pronounce

Ulta’s U.S. pronounce engine isn’t sputtering, but it’s definitely shifting.

The firm is peaceable opening stores, but at a good slower tempo than it did in the 2010s. It’s also facing fresh stress from Sephora, which has aggressively expanded thru Kohl’s shop-in-outlets and continues to claw at market fragment.

In the meantime, the put up-pandemic beauty pronounce has cooled. Ulta’s Q1 sales had been up accurate 4.5%, and each and each 2024 and 2025 had been labeled “transitional years” by the firm itself.

This acquisition offers Ulta a new pronounce lever — one that sidesteps its domestic saturation and puts the firm in entrance of a new, untapped target audience.

And it isn’t accurate a defensive play.

As retail analyst Neil Saunders pointed out, Space NK operates in a more top price tier than Ulta and brings with it a “ready-made global industry.” That form of constructed-in infrastructure is abnormal — and precious.

With the global beauty and personal care market projected to reach virtually about $800 billion by 2030, Ulta’s timing is on point.

Whether or no longer Space NK turns accurate into an extended-term crown jewel or a stepping stone, one thing is obvious: Ulta isn’t waiting spherical. It’s going global...and doing it rapid.

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