Boots adds to trend for higher high street sales as UK grapples with sticky inflation

‘Everyday’ essentials range keeps the tills ringing even as interest rates rise

Boots said its ‘Everyday’ essentials label saw volume growth of 40%(Boots/PA)

Michael Hunter, Markets reporter27 June 2023

Rising sales at Boots, the high street chemist, came as the latest sign of sustained consumer spending in the UK as the Bank of England struggles to tame inflation with interest rate hikes.

Retail sales were up by over 13% in the third quarter to the end of May across the chain. It has around 2,200 shops across the country and claims that means around 85% of the population live within a 10 minure walk of a Boots.

Its Everyday Essentials range drove the trend, up 40% . Boots launched a Future Renew range from its No7 brand, which sold one product every two seconds on its launch day. There were half a million customer transactions for the new product in the first four weeks,

City centre flagship and travel stores saw the biggest sales increase, while digital sales also continued to grow, up 25.2% year on year.

There are several branches within easy reach of the Bank of England’s Threadneedle Street headquarters, with Boots located on Bishopsgate, Cheapside and Cannon Street. The update may make for uneasy reading for the BOE’s embattled governor, Andrew Bailey, and the Monetary Policy Committee. They are having trouble taming inflation after 13 consecutive interest rate hikes took base rates to 5%, up by a supersized half a percentage point last time.

As Britons carried on spending, Boots said its Beauty category was up by almost a fifth and Skincare by nearly a quarter year-on-year. The company, founded in Nottingham in 1849, is now part of the Walgreens Boots Alliance based in the US.