THG boss Matthew Moulding opens up about coffee addiction struggle amidst IPO pressures
Matthew Moulding, Founder and CEO at e-commerce firm The Hut Group (THG), has taken to social media to discuss his struggles with coffee addiction.
In 2021, Moulding told a conference that he should not have listed in London for a $7.7 billion IPO back in September 2020, and that the experience “just sucked from start to finish”.
This week in a LinkedIn post, meanwhile, he wrote: “We all have addictions. I have mine. Anyone who knows me has been bemused, if not amused, by my coffee consumption.”
“I’ve always drank a good amount of caffeine each day. My mum even confessed to Jodie that she used to put coffee in my bottle when I was a baby! For years, it would have beenfour or five triple shot flat whites each day.”
“This stepped up to 10 triple shot flat whites a day since IPO (yup, 30 shots of caffeine each day). Any picture of me with family or friends usually has a coffee cup near me, whatever time of day.”
He added: “I had zero noticeable side effects. I’d often drink coffee late at night with zero impact on sleep. I started to wear my caffeine consumption as some sort of badge of honour.”
“Maybe it’s a throwback to my childhood northern roots, where lager drinking challenges were the norm. I don’t even like lager. Good job really as drinking lager to get through the days in the past two years wouldn’t have ended well.”
Moulding went on to note that Dr. Ishrat, the new THG GP, runs a daily surgery from the firm’s offices which is available to all employees.
“The service saves THG money, as well as lives, and helps us to create a culture of understanding and awareness. Given the obvious tough ride I've had in the past two years, Dr. Ishrat insisted I start having monthly check ups, including blood tests. I'd usually swerve such an intrusion, but Ishrat is persuasive, and her surgery is in my office building.”
After a blood test in January, Dr. Ishrat told Moulding that his cholesterol was “off the charts”.
Moulding commented: “Nobody in my family has cholesterol issues, my diet is really good and previous body scans suggest I'm in good shape. So, nothing made sense. Dr. Ishrat put it down to either stress, excessive coffee, or both.”
He concluded: “I opted for controlling what I can and cut out all coffee. Symptoms were lively - belting headaches for twodays, then debilitating back spasms for three days. Then, nothing.”
“Five weeks later, I've had another medical. This time, the cholesterol readings have almost halved to now below normal levels. Turns out the stress addiction is fine, and I just needed to pull back on the coffee addiction.”
AutoStore
Last week, we reported that AutoStore’s fulfilment automation technology was now available as a pay per pick service.
It says that the new offering will enable a lower entry price point to help retailers meet the growing need for more efficient warehouse operations and faster customer delivery.
AutoStore has also signed a global distribution partnership agreement with THG Ingenuity, part of THG.
THG Ingenuity will provide AutoStore technology on a pay per pick model embedded alongside its proprietary warehouse management, courier and optimisation software.
“We have seen rising demand for volume-based pricing and more flexible payment terms for customers,” said Mats Hovland Vikse, CEO at AutoStore.
“Today, more than 80% of warehouses globally have no automation whatsoever. We believe that the pay-per-pick model will further differentiate us and our integrator partners in the market and unlock new demand for order fulfilment automation.”
“AutoStore is already well known to THG. Thus, we are very excited that THG Ingenuity now has the opportunity to step up as a partner to make the benefits of order fulfilment automation easily accessible to our growing customer base and potential new markets, across a broad range of categories” said John Gallemore, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer at THG.
The new pay per pick model is based on an upfront payment for the warehouse grid infrastructure and a recurring subscription fee for robots, ports, and software based on order volume.
The upfront payment for grid infrastructure is expected to be between 20-40% of the typical total cost.
“We look at the pay per pick model as a 'win win win' solution. As demand curves shift, this alternative pricing model can provide extra protection for customers and the ability to scale up or down with minimal effort. For us, and AutoStore, recurring subscriptions provide increased visibility and predictable revenue,” added Gallemore.
AutoStore has 23 partnership agreements worldwide. THG Ingenuity is the first to be implemented on a pay per pick model.
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