Superdrug has announced a strong trading performance over the festive period, with its gift ranges recording their best ever Christmas.

Sales in like-for-like stores increased by 7.2% for the five weeks ending 2 January 2017, with market-leading promotions, including exclusive gifts with purchase, contributing to a 10% sales increase in make-up. Beauty advent calenders proved particularly popular, taking just over £1m of sales, while sales of £1 gifts tripled compared to 2015.

Online sales also increased by 47% over last year, with almost 40% of orders in the week prior to Christmas being collected from store.

Superdrug’s store expansion continued over this period; nine stores opened in December, including those in key retail locations such as Castlepoint Retail Park, Bournemouth, (pictured) and Fosse Park, Leicester, creating more than 450 new jobs.

Peter Macnab, CEO at A.S. Watson (Health & Beauty UK), says: “This Christmas we concentrated on offering customers as many reasons as possible to shop at Superdrug – from market-leading prices to a wealth of free gifts. We also added interest to our stores with more beauty and health services, and this is something we look forward to building on next year. I would like to thank all our colleagues for their hard work over this busy festive period.”