Customers switching to online shopping during Covid-19 lockdowns helped turnover surged by more than £50m at a beauty products retailer during its latest financial year.
Beauty Bay, which is headquartered in Manchester, has posted a turnover of £134.4m for the 12 months to March 31, 2021, up from the £82.2m it achieved during the prior year.
The company's pre-tax profits also increased from £4.4m to £9.2m over the same period.
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The number of people employed by the firm during the year increased from 129 to 150.
The business, which was founded in 1999, sells makeup, skincare, bath and body, haircare, gifts and other accessories.
A statement signed off by the board said: "This increase in turnover was driven largely by increases by 93% and 55% respectively in orders from new and existing customers driven from exceptionally strong levels of new customer acquisition as customers switched away from traditional high street retail to online retail to purchase beauty products during [the] Covid-19 lockdown period[s].
"The group 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 (2020 - 20%).
"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."