Beauty Health And Beauty Sales Drive Growth At Alliance Boots

Alliance Boots, which was acquired by private equity group KKR last year, has announced like-for-like retail sales up by 4.8% over the last three months of 2007. Growth was driven by strong demand for health and beauty division, which reported underlying sales growth of 6.9%. Last Christmas the group reported like-for-like sales growth of just 1.5%.

The group’s pharmacy operation also performed well, with dispensing volumes up by 5.2%. In the wholesaling drugs division, sales in France (the group’s biggest wholesale market) rose by 3.5%.The figures are the first under new boss Alex Gourlay, who was promoted from healthcare director when Richard Baker resigned after the takeover.