Bursting with vitamins

When recession gets its grasping tentacles around the consumer’s wallet and starts to squeeze, it is obvious that said consumer must have a sharp look at his spending and start to prioritise. Fans of Curro will point out that school fees are particularly resilient, with parents enduring hardships galore to ensure that the fruits of their loins are given a decent start in life. Now shareholders in Clicks will be more than pleased to discover the somewhat counterintuitive news that the health and beauty sector is more than holding its own.

The rational consumer might take a view of the economic climate and decide to dial down on the anti-wrinkle cream, yet it seems that the Clicks faithful have decided that they may be on a fast track to debtors’ prison, but they will arrive there bursting with vitamins and exotic dietary supplements while their skin is glowing with the freshness that, 97% agree, is down to ladling on three varieties of slop.

The company does mention that customers are adjusting to the times by switching to Clicks private-label products, which has helped to grow margins, and it continues to invest in new stores and extensions of existing stores. A particularly strong performance came from its pharmaceutical distributor UPD, which continues to grow market share and increased operating profit by 27.2%. The group is expecting the trading environment to remain challenging and load-shedding to continue to erode consumer confidence, but it is taking advantage of the resilience of its business model to accelerate its expansion plans and continue to invest for the future.

Shareholders will be pleased that health and beauty is more than holding its own