Lush enjoys surge in Christmas sales
Lush Cosmetics enjoyed a 12.2% uplift in UK like-for-like sales in the five weeks to 29 December as revenue was boosted by a 27.7% rise in online sales.
In a trading statement, the cosmetics retailer said that UK retail sales rose by 13.4% on the same period last year to reach £20 million.
With 910 stores in 50 countries, Lush saw its global sales surge by 17.6% in the period while like-for-like sales increased by 11.4%.
Lush also reported that its global group turnover rose 11.3% to £362.9 million in the year to 30 June 2013 as the company benefited from an increased number of stores and like-for-like growth of 3.7% across all of its markets.
Never Miss a Retail Update!However, pre-tax profit for the full year fell 16.2% to £21.9 million following a significant increase in charitable donations and the company’s investment in “Lushfest”, an international festival style event to support global training and communications.
For the company’s three main markets, improved results in North America and the UK were partially offset by Japan, where costs were incurred to restructure the business, which has become 100% owned since the year end.
Lush’s charitable donations for the year increased by almost 50% with Lush partners worldwide donating a total of £3.1 million to charities and other good causes.
Kim Coles, Lush finance director, said: “These healthy results are based on an ever-improving and innovative product range and great staff with bags of enthusiasm. Customers are increasingly appreciating our values and the value of high quality products made with the freshest possible natural ingredients.
“It is great to be able to report such encouraging Christmas sales in the same week as filing our strong year end 30 June 2013 results and we remain optimistic about the future as we continue to grow the business globally with expansion plans including our first New York spa opening on 8 January, our first Brazil shop opening in the next few months and a new UK website in March.”
