Health and beauty retailer Boots has recorded growth across all of its categories and channels in the first quarter, along with an “exceptional” performance over the Black Friday period.
Total comparable retail sales were up 8.1% year on year in the three months to November 30. Digital sales saw a rise of 23% year on year to account for 22% of total retail sales.
Store sales grew, with the retailer adding that destination stores, flagships, and travel stores performed “particularly well”. The Boots app also grew to 8.1m active users.
Boots experienced an “exceptional” Black Friday period as sales were up 20% during the week, reaching its biggest-ever day of sales on the Friday itself with almost five orders per second at one point.
Fragrance, beauty, and Christmas gifts were the top-selling categories during Black Friday week as nearly two bottles of fragrance were sold every second.
Sales of beauty increased 11% year on year in the quarter, and Boots added over 20 new brands to its selection of popular beauty brands.
Comparable pharmacy sales grew 10.9% during this period, driven by strong performances in services such as flu, Covid-19 and travel vaccinations, and its Online Doctor service saw sales go up by more than double year on year.
Its Christmas sales performance was not included in these results, but Boots said “early indications suggest a solid Christmas trading period”.
Boots UK and Ireland managing director Anthony Hemmerdinger said: “This is another strong set of financial results, with retail and pharmacy sales seeing significant uplift alongside market share gains and increased customer satisfaction scores. These figures demonstrate that our ongoing transformation – from improvements to the in-store and digital customer experience, to a focus on offering the very best product and service range across all price points is working.
“This kind of success requires collaborative working at pace, and I’d like to say a big thank you to all of our team members for their hard work over this important trading period.
“We are relentlessly focused on our transformation journey and have more exciting plans ahead to further enhance the experience for our customers.
“Looking forward, we face heightened cost pressures in 2025 following the Autumn Budget, however with positive momentum behind us and a clear plan in place, the business is focused on navigating these and continuing to deliver long-term, sustainable growth.”
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