Boots Alliance reports strong growth but beauty fails to shine
However, the company says that the performance was driven by its pharmaceuticals wholesales division, where sales increased by more than 17 percent to £5.3bn.
Sales for the health and beauty division, the company’s second biggest business segment, grew by just 3.5 per cent to £3.4bn – a figure that showed like-for-like revenue growth was flat.
Revenue exceeds £8bn
Driven by the strong performance in the revenue division, the company’s revenue for the six month period exceeded the £8bn figure, which means it is on track to achieve its full year objectives.
Net profit figures were not revealed for these preliminary results.
Breaking the health and beauty figures down reveals that in the mainstay UK market sales growth was up 1.8 percent, while retail volumes were up just 0.5 per cent.
No7 warps UK figures
The company said that the results for the UK health and beauty division were strong, considering the significant impact strong demand for the No7 Protect and Perfect Beauty Serum had had on the corresponding period for 2007.
However, total revenues for the health and beauty division operations outside the UK were up 17.7 per cent, while like-for-like revenues were up 0.1 per cent.
The company said these figures reflected a strong performance in the markets of Norway and Thailand, which offset poorer performances in the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands.
Looking ahead to the full year’s results, the company said that it expects the weak economic outlook to be offset by its ‘business transformation and integration programme, together with our strong focus on customer service, value and our increasingly differentiated product offerings’.
