Sales in Beauty and Toiletries were up 3.3% to £923m.
Within Beauty, our investment in our own brands and in new beauty halls has helped us to grow sales by 7.3% within which we saw Premium cosmetics up 9% and No7 up 12%.
Growth in Toiletries was 2.9% in the half with particularly good growth in Suncare, up 16% with Soltan now established as the biggest brand in the market. Skincare and Dental also performed strongly.
Growth in the Beauty and Toiletries category was depressed by beauty-related electrical products, such as hair straighteners and shavers, sales of which have been particularly affected by the consumer slowdown and were down 5.9%.
In total, sales growth has been in line with the health and beauty market.
LINK: Moving on to BTC's Lifestyle category.
