High street giant Boots has struck back against supermarket rivals who launched a price war on health and beauty products.

The company, which embarked on a £390 million overhaul earlier this year, yesterday posted a 4.4 per cent rise in first quarter like-for-like sales at its core stores.

The health and beauty chain, which has a flagship store in Brighton, said the results reflected the positive response of customers to improvements.

Boots also revealed that almost 40,000 of its employees had been given free shares worth about £7 million this year.

The increase in same-store sales at Boots helped lift total group sales by 3.9 per cent.

The results follow the company's announcement in March that it faced "substantial challenges" to modernise its stores in the face of increased competition.

Since then it has extended opening hours, modernised pharmacies, cut prices and introduced its popular low-carbohydrate Atkins range of food.

Chief executive Richard Baker said: "Continued growth shows the positive response of customers to improving value and convenience on top of our existing strengths of great products and great people."

Friday July 23, 2004