Ulta Beauty

About Ulta Beauty

What if you could buy your favorite drugstore mascara and a high-end French perfume in the same store? That simple, but revolutionary, idea is the foundation of Ulta Beauty. Before Ulta, the beauty world was strictly divided. You went to a drugstore for mass-market products and a department store for prestige brands. Ulta smashed that wall, creating a one-stop-shop for all things beauty, from the affordable to the aspirational, complete with in-store salon services. The story begins in 1990 with two former drugstore executives, Richard E. George and Terry Hanson. George, previously the president of Osco Drug, saw a gap in the market and left his post to create a new kind of beauty retailer. Together, they raised $11.5 million in venture capital and opened the first five stores, then called Ulta3, in the Chicago suburbs. The initial concept was to provide a "third way" for consumers to shop for beauty, beyond drugstores and department stores. After George's departure in 1995, Hanson took over as CEO. The company simplified its name to Ulta in 1999 and went public on the NASDAQ in 2007, which fueled a massive expansion across the country. This period marked a significant scaling of its unique model: combining a vast array of products with the experience of a salon. Today, Ulta Beauty is the largest specialty beauty retailer in the U.S., operating over a thousand stores. It has become a powerhouse by building a massive loyalty program and expanding its reach through strategic partnerships, like its shop-in-shop concept with Target. The company continues to blend physical and digital retail, aiming to stay on top of the ever-changing beauty landscape.