Superdrug reports robust Christmas trading
Superdrug has reported a robust Christmas trading performance with sales in like-for-like stores increasing by 7.2% in the five weeks ended 2 January.
Make-up was one of the bestselling categories with sales up 10%. Gift ranges also performed well, particularly beauty advent calendars which recorded over £1 million in sales.
Fragrance sales were driven by designer fragrance brands as customers snapped up fragrances from the likes of Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana.
Online sales rose by 47% in the period with some 40% of orders in the week prior to Christmas collected from a store.
Superdrug opened nine new stores in December. This brought the total number of new stores for the year to 23 including in key retail locations such as Fosse Park, Leicester and Castlepoint Retail Park, Bournemouth. These stores all feature Superdrug’s enhanced beauty services proposition which includes waxing, nail bars and threading.
Peter Macnab, chief executive of Superdrug owner AS Watson (Health & Beauty UK), said: “This Christmas we concentrated on offering customers as many reasons as possible to shop at Superdrug – from market-leading prices to a wealth of free gifts. We also added interest to our stores with more beauty and health services and this is something we look forward to building on next year.”
