Sales in the Lifestyle categories have been difficult in the first half. Sales were £337m, down 2.8% on last year.
The Baby category has continued to show good growth, up 5.3% and benefited from the additional space and ranges added last year.
Food sales were down 3.9%. The launch of exclusive Atkins diet products helped the Food business to a strong performance last year. The combination of lower sales of Atkins ranges this year together with the disruption to the key London market in Q2 has left sales down in the first half.
We continue to gain market share in photo and to see good growth in digital although the overall market remains in decline and sales were down 10.2%.
LINK: I would now like to look at the performance of the Boots Opticians business.
