Nottingham health and beauty retailer Boots has welcomed a strong first quarter with total comparable retail sales up 8.1% Year over Year (YoY) for the three months ended 30 November 2024. The business saw growth across all categories and channels, on top of a significant increase in the prior year.
Boots.com performed strongly during the quarter, with digital sales up 23% YoY, accounting for 22% of total retail sales. Use of the Boots app continues to grow, now with 8.1 million active users. Store sales grew, with Boots destination health and beauty stores and flagships performing particularly well, as well as travel stores.
Continuing its investment in the in-store experience, Boots refurbished over 30 stores in the quarter.
These results were supported by a strong Black Friday period, with sales up 20% during the week. On the Friday itself, boots.com achieved its biggest ever day of sales, with almost five orders per second during its busiest hour. Store sales were also strong.
Beauty continued to perform well, with sales up 11% YoY for the quarter, driven by fragrance, premium beauty, and skincare.
In healthcare, comparable pharmacy sales were up 10.9%, primarily driven by services including flu, COVID-19 and travel vaccinations.
Boots also delivered over 155,000 NHS Pharmacy First consultations in England in the quarter, enabling accessible treatment on the high street for seven common conditions, including sore throat, earache and urinary tract infections. Boots Online Doctor continued to perform well, with sales more than doubling YoY.
Boots Christmas sales performance will be reported on in its Q2 earnings later this year, however early indications from the business suggest a solid Christmas trading period.
Anthony Hemmerdinger, Managing Director, Boots UK and Ireland, 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.”
