Thea Green, Founder of Nails Inc., Exits Company Following Sale to Pacific World Corp.

by · WWD
Thea Green, founder of Nails Inc.Courtesy

GREENER PASTURES: British entrepreneur Thea Green is leaving Nails Inc., the company she founded in 1999, following the company’s sale two years ago to U.S. private equity firm Pacific World Corp., which specializes in scaling consumer brands.

Green, whose exit was part of the deal, said “a business is only ever as good as its people, and I’ve been lucky to work with some of the best. 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 of.”

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She founded the business as a walk-in nail bar and turned it into a multimillion-pound beauty retail firm before selling it to Pacific World Corp. for 30 million pounds in 2024. Following the sale, she continued to serve as the company’s CEO and chairwoman, and her earn-out period has now ended.

The brand’s products are stocked in more than 30 countries through retailers such as Target, Walmart, Boots and Superdrug. The U.S. is now the brand’s largest market, accounting for nearly half of its global revenue.

For the first nine months of 2026, total sales across all brands rose 26.5 percent to $29.8 million.

Green, who earlier in her career was fashion editor for Tatler magazine, has always been an innovator. During her long tenure at Nails Inc., she treated formulations like fashion designs, bringing polishes to market that focused on problem-solving for customers, sensory experiences and storytelling.

She came up with the spray-on mani; gel-effect polish without the need for a lamp, and “It’s Topless,” polishes that offer four coats in one and are designed to dry in 60 seconds with no top coat needed.

This week, 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.

Green launched the first Nails Inc. salon in London aged 23 after raising 250,000 pounds from 11 investors. She initially scaled the business through walk-in bars and department store concessions and used the early salons as a lab to test polish shades on thousands of customers before moving the brand entirely into global retail.