Beauty Bay sales surge on strategic switch to digital

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Feb 10, 2022

Covid lockdowns and the dramatic switch to online shopping have been key to Beauty Bay’s surge in sales and profits, the Manchester-based make-up, skincare, bath and body retailer said.

In its latest figures filed for the year to 31 March 2021, sales leapt by more than £50 million to £134.4 million, up from the £82.2 million achieved during the prior year.

It noted the increase in turnover was driven largely by a 93% jump in new customers backed up by a 55% rise in existing clients.

“This activity was driven by customers switching away from traditional high street retail to online retail to purchase beauty products during [the] Covid-19 lockdown period[s]”, it confirmed in its accounts statement.

As a consequence, the company's pre-tax profits more than doubled to £9.2 million, from £4.4 million in the previous period.

In order to accommodate the dramatic increase in business, the number of people employed by the firm during the year increased from 129 to 150.

Beauty Bay also continued to focus on driving its private label business and key strategic markets throughout the year, which helped drive an improvement in gross profit margins to 21% in the year, from 20% previously.

“The group continues to invest in its digital platforms to deliver ongoing capability to adapt to changing market conditions and enable it to maintain differentiation in an increasingly competitive marketplace”, it added.