Shock exit at Superdrug

The head of the company behind the Superdrug and Savers retail chains in the UK has quit unexpectedly, despite a rise in festive sales.

Jeremy Seigal had been the chief executive of AS Watson Health & Beauty UK since 2008. His reasons for leaving are unclear. He has been replaced by chief operating officer Joey Wat, who becomes managing director of its UK operation.

The shake-up came as Superdrug posted sales, including VAT, up 2.5% between 27 November and 31 December, although it benefited from soft comparable revenues for the snow-affected period in 2010.

Superdrug touted record sales of cosmetics in the last week of the period and strong take-up of its new loyalty card. Online sales rocketed by 94.9%.

Commercial director Steve Jebson said: "Our Christmas trading figures show a solid performance during challenging times. 2011 saw the launch of our loyalty card, the Beautycard, and during December one in five transactions were linked to a card, showing a good level of customer participation in the scheme."

Superdrug, which has 900 UK shops, and Savers, the discount health and beauty chain with 230 stores, are owned by AS Watson, part of Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.

In the 1990s, Seigal co-founded the Perfume Shop chain, acquired by AS Watson in 2005. Superdrug delivered a pre-tax profit of £9.3 million for the year to 25 December 2010, on flat sales of £1.05 billion.