• Boots comparable retail sales up 9.8% YOY, on top of 8.7% growth in prior year
• Record-breaking Black Friday with biggest ever day of online and app sales and strong store performance
• Eleventh consecutive quarter of market share growth, with gains across main categories
• Boots.com sales up 17.5% YOY, with November its biggest ever month
• Early indications suggest a strong Christmas trading period, ahead of last year’s excellent performance

Boots delivered a strong performance in the first quarter, ended 30 November 2023, with an eleventh consecutive quarter of market share growth and retail sales up by 9.8%, on top of an 8.7% increase in the prior year.

These excellent results were in part driven by a strong Black Friday period, which saw boots.com achieve its biggest ever month of sales in November and its biggest ever day of sales on Black Friday. Store sales were also strong, up over 7% in Black Friday week. Electrical Beauty, Skincare, Premium Beauty, No7 and Fragrance were the top performing categories, with a bottle of fragrance sold every second of Black Friday week.

In stores, footfall continued to grow in the quarter, up 7%, as more customers chose to shop at Boots. All store formats saw sales growth YOY, with flagship and travel locations performing particularly well.

Digital sales now contribute 19.2% of total retail sales, with boots.com sales growing 17.5%. Use of the Boots App continues to grow at pace and it now has 7.2 million active users.

Beauty sales were up 11.4% for the quarter, driven by continued strong performance of Skincare and Premium Beauty. Haircare saw sales growth of 10% bolstered by the launch of 10 Professional and Salon haircare brands to boots.com, while No7, the UK’s No1 skincare brand, saw sales growth of over 13%.

Consumer healthcare sales also increased, driven by an uptick in Gastro and Family Planning. Over 1m flu vaccinations were administered in the quarter, over 60% on behalf of the NHS, alongside nearly 90,000 COVID booster jabs and over 78,000 blood pressure checks. Boots Online Doctor continues to grow, with orders up 12% YOY, with emergency contraception, erectile dysfunction and period delay among the most-used services.

Value remains a key focus for customers with Boots own brand products proving popular, in particular own label skincare and healthcare. Price Advantage contributed to a large increase in sign-ups to the Boots Advantage Card, with the number of active members nearly at a record high. 

Christmas sales performance will be reported on as part of Q2 earnings later in the year, however early indications suggest a strong Christmas period with sales from Black Friday week until the New Year beating last year’s excellent performance.

Seb James, Managing Director of Boots UK and ROI, said: "I am very encouraged by the way in which people are responding to the changes that we have made, especially in our digital and beauty businesses. It is really good to see that market share has grown for the eleventh quarter in a row showing that more customers are choosing Boots. This strong start to the year, together with a good Christmas, sets us up well for another good year and I would like to thank most sincerely all of my colleagues for their hard work and resilience over this vital trading period."