Cosmetics empire Mecca’s hidden $900m profits lift founder Jo Horgan into Richest 250 billionaire ranks
Australia's cosmetics queen Jo Horgan joins the self-made billionaires club after unearthed financials reveal a staggering extra $600m in dividends over a transformative decade.
Retail queen Jo Horgan is Australia’s newest billionaire on account of almost $600m in previously undisclosed dividends accumulated over the past decade from her cosmetics empire.
Those accounts, uncovered by The Australian, also show the Mecca juggernaut — controlled by Ms Horgan and her husband Peter Wetenhall — generated close to $900m in profits over the same period of time, far higher than the picture conveyed by its partial financials.
Ms Horgan’s wealth has grown after accounts for the privately-held RTCH Pty Ltd were linked with the Melbourne-based founder for the first time in August.
RTCH, which is Mecca’s parent, racked up net profits of $878m since 2016. Of that haul, dividends of $582m were paid out to its owners.
The money has likely flowed to Ms Horgan and Mr Wetenhall, given their recent confirmation that RTCH — set up by their long-time accountant Phil Ibbotson — is affiliated with the pair and Mecca.
The duo could have, as many business owners do, reinvested those substantial profits back into the business. But dividends are paid to shareholders.
The success of RTCH compares more favourably with the makeup company’s retail arm, Mecca Brands, which reported substantially smaller dividends worth $32m and profit worth $168m since 2016.
It is those figures for Mecca Brands, as well as valuations for other assets such as property, that were used to calculate Ms Horgan and Mr Wetenhall’s estimated wealth annually for The List - Australia’s Richest 250.
It was $807m when The Australian published the 2025 edition of The List in March.
Back of the envelope calculations and projections using the new figures surfaced by the RTCH documents suggest Ms Horgan and her husband’s estimated wealth could be $1.5bn.
On this estimate, Ms Horgan and Mr Wetenhall’s fortune could place them inside the top 100 wealthiest Australians, ahead of big business names such as entrepreneur Adrian Portelli, legendary fund manager Kerr Neilson and miner Chris Ellison.
Mecca was compelled to reveal its links with the RTCH holding company after discussions with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Mecca auditor PwC.
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ASIC subsequently revealed it is investigating the cosmetics retailer — one of Australia’s most successful growth stories — for potential breaches of its financial reporting duties.
The corporate regulator is examining large proprietary companies to enforce late, incomplete or non-lodgement of their accounts.
Australia’s accounting rules establish that companies must disclose relationships between a parent and its subsidiaries irrespective of whether there have been related party transactions.
The ultimate controlling entity must be identified.
According to the latest accounts for Mecca Brands, its parent (RTCH) loaned the retail arm $125m in the 2024 calendar year, of which $133m was paid back to RTCH by the balance date.
Retail operation Mecca Brands reported sales of $1.28bn, and a 20 per cent slide in profit to $22.7m.
But now two other related companies, Mecca Distribution and Mecca IP, join Mecca Brands as wholly owned subsidiaries of RTCH to fill out the picture. It appears that RTCH has always been Mecca’s parent company.
Mecca responded to a request for comment this week, but a spokeswoman said the distribution of Mecca’s dividends including to its subsidiary companies would remain a private matter.
“We recognise the interest in Mecca’s financial position. However, as a privately owned business that has never raised capital from the public, we won’t be providing further details beyond meeting all our reporting obligations,” she said.
It has previously been disclosed that some of those 2024 dividends were reinvested back into the company, including into its new mega-store in Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall, which opened to customer acclaim in August.
The Mecca empire has largely been protected from public view as Ms Horgan and Mr Wetenhall decline outside capital, having grown the business from a single store.
RTCH has been lodging its accounts via Melbourne-based accountant Mr Ibbotson who is listed as the company’s sole director.
Some early media reports on Mecca and Ms Horgan describe Mr Ibbotson as a board member of the then-fledgling business, but formal paperwork only links him as a company director of Mecca Brands in 2006 and 2007.
Ms Horgan started her skincare and cosmetics business in 1997 and has overseen spectacular growth since. Mr Wetenhall joined the company eight years after it was founded, and there are now more than 100 Mecca stores across Australia and New Zealand.
Ms Horgan’s Melbourne flagship is easily her most ambitious retail project yet, but its influence on the top-line won’t be known until RTCH’s 2025 accounts are released next year.
Redevelopment of the heritage listed building in the centre of Melbourne’s CBD reportedly cost about $50m, and its opening was delayed by months. The 4000 sqm “Mecca 3000” replaced a David Jones department store and attracted queues of hundreds of superfans.
Mecca last year faced allegations from some of its staff members, ranging from breaches of workplace laws to claims of a high-pressure culture. The company never publicly commented on those claims, and staff — senior employees and retail workers — who left the business signed non-disclosure agreements.
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