Health & beauty chain Boots has announced that sales grew strongly over the crucial Christmas period, in what appears to have been a mixed spell for retailers.
Like-for-like (LFL) sales were up 4.1 per cent over the final five weeks of last year, with dispensing volumes 1.2 per cent higher than during the same period in 2010. Although division-wide sales excluding VAT were little changed, group revenue rose by 14.1 per cent on an LFL basis.
“Despite the difficult trading environment, the UK retail division as we expected delivered good profit growth through a combination of effective gross margin management and tight cost controls,” said executive chairman Stefano Pessina. “Looking to 2012, we expect the economic environment to remain tough.”
Mr Pessina noted that the performance of Boots’ retail arm had been “particularly good” over Christmas, and added that the retailer is actively seeking to boost growth further by taking advantage of “new opportunities”.
Last week, rival Superdrug reported a year-on-year sales increase of 2.5 per cent in the run-up to Christmas, accompanied by a healthy surge in revenues.
