Beauty / news
Nails Inc. Founder Thea Green Exits After £30 Million Pacific World Sale
Thea Green is leaving Nails Inc., the nail bar and products business she founded in 1999, after its 2024 sale to U.S. private equity firm Pacific World Corp. Her exit was built into that deal, and her earn-out period has now ended.
Green started the company as a walk-in nail bar and grew it into a multimillion-pound beauty retail operation before agreeing to sell it to Pacific World Corp., a U.S. private equity investor that focuses on scaling consumer brands, for £30 million in 2024.
She remained chief executive and chairwoman after the transaction, and her departure was part of the original agreement. With the earn-out period now closed, she is stepping away from the business she led for more than 25 years.
Nails Inc. products are carried in more than 30 countries through retailers including Target, Walmart, Boots and Superdrug. The United States has become the brand's single largest market, generating close to half of its global revenue.
For the first nine months of 2026, sales across all of the company's brands rose 26.5 percent to $29.8 million.
Before founding the business, Green worked as fashion editor at Tatler magazine, a background she drew on while building the brand's retail and product strategy.
Reflecting on her tenure, Green credited her teams and customers for the company's growth, saying a business is only as good as its people and that shoppers had been her central focus throughout. She also thanked the wider beauty industry for what she described as a warm and supportive community.