Boots puts on brave face after sales dip

While its newer health services, such as dentalcare and chiropody improved strongly - dentalcare was ahead of 1999 by 114.4 per cent - Boots' optical and chemist chains reported sales down by 3.5 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively. Like-for-like Boots Opticians sales dipped 0.2 per cent. A spokesman for Boots Opticians said: 'In a market which was weak during the period, sales were maintained, helped by the roll-out of Advanced Lightstream Technology and an overall improvement in sales per eye examination.' In December the company also unveiled its Lasik eye surgery service. Commenting on retail sales for the 13 weeks to December 30 2000, chief executive of The Boots Company plc, Steve Russell, said: 'The underlying performance in Boots The Chemists was in line with our expectations. Health and beauty sales increased by 3.6 per cent, 2.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis, despite the effect of a much lower incidence of colds and flu. 'In particular, we are very pleased with the performance of beauty ranges introduced as part of our move to bring more innovation to our customer offer. As anticipated, the managed exit from non-core leisure ranges has given rise to a decline in total sales but a good increase in margins. The impact of the exit was to reduce total Boots The Chemists sales by 5.0 per cent.'