Exclusive: Superdrug has overtaken a global beauty giant into second place in the UK beauty market

Superdrug has climbed to second place in Retail Week’s ranking of the 20 biggest health and beauty retailers dominating the market, outgrowing L’Oréal for the first time in the UK.

The high street retailer, owned by AS Watson Group, posted year-on-year growth of 17% in UK sales to £1.37bn in financial year 2023.

IL’Oréal came third with total UK sales of £1.27bn in the same period, which included sales from its direct-to-consumer operations as well as other physical channels of distribution.

Superdrug reported that it now holds a 40% market share of mass-market cosmetics in the UK, its highest in 10 years.

Kate Doherty, senior retail analyst at Lumina Intelligence, said Superdrug’s keen focus on its omnichannel strategy and the launch of its marketplace has helped it grow without taking on huge costs in building infrastructure.

She said: “Parent-company AS Watson’s strategy for Superdrug has been focused on its O+O [online-plus-offline] model. Superdrug continues to reap the advantages of AS Watson’s economies of scale when it comes to sourcing and investment, having benefited from group digital investment bringing new technology across the business.

“The launch of the Superdrug marketplace online has enabled it to rapidly increase its range without infrastructure-related complications and to test consumer response to new and established brands.”

Simon Comins, chief commercial officer at Superdrug, said: “As an accessible retailer for the last 60 years, quality and value have been at the heart of everything we do. We have listened to our customers and invested in making sure we continue to meet their needs. Since 2021, we’ve cut prices across our own-brand ranges and removed the equivalent of VAT from our Solait own-brand suncare range and oral health range ProCare.

“We always ensure that we are offering customers a wide range of fantastic trending products at affordable prices. We continue to invest heavily into our bricks-and-mortar retail estate to enhance the physical shopping experience for customers with increasingly bigger and better store formats in prime retail destinations.”