Thea Green Exits Nails Inc. After $30 Million Pacific World Sale

Thea Green is leaving Nails Inc., the company she founded in 1999 and sold to Pacific World Corp. for 30 million pounds in 2024. Her exit was part of the deal. Her earn-out period has now ended, and with it, a 27-year run.

Green stayed on as CEO and chairwoman after the sale. She announced the departure in characteristically customer-first terms. "A business is only ever as good as its people, and I've been lucky to work with some of the best," she said. "The customer has always been my number-one obsession — without them, nothing is possible. And to the beauty industry: Thank you for being the warm and supportive community of which I'm grateful to be a part."

What did Green build?

She started with a walk-in nail bar in London at age 23, funded by 250,000 pounds raised from 11 investors. The salons doubled as testing grounds. She used them as a lab to trial polish shades on thousands of customers before moving the brand entirely into global retail.

Before that, she was fashion editor at Tatler. The habit stuck. She treated formulations like fashion designs, the company said, focusing on problem-solving, sensory experiences and storytelling.

Her product record includes:

• The spray-on manicure
• Gel-effect polish that needs no lamp
• "It's Topless," a four-coats-in-one polish that dries in 60 seconds with no top coat

How is the business performing?

The numbers suggest the brand did not need its founder on the payroll to grow. For the first nine months of 2026, total sales across all brands rose 26.5 percent to $29.8 million.

The products now sell in more than 30 countries through retailers including Target, Walmart, Boots and Superdrug. The U.S. is the brand's largest market, accounting for nearly half of global revenue. A British nail bar chain is now, in revenue terms, an American mass-market brand.

What launches without her?

The transition week includes a debut. Nails Inc. is set to launch Longevity, a creatine-boosted nail polish with a 16-day wear time — longer than anything on the market, the company said. The founder exits with the innovation pipeline still running.

Pacific World Corp., a U.S. private equity firm specializing in scaling consumer brands, now holds full strategic control. The test is whether the formulation-as-fashion formula survives without the woman who invented it.