Superdrug Plans 30 New UK Retail Park Stores

Author:

Superdrug plans 30 new UK retail-park stores — full details

 

Expansion overview

The company says demand for in-person shopping and services like treatments and advice is driving the investment. (Cosmetics Business)

First confirmed store locations

(Only the first 10 have been publicly revealed so far)

England

Scotland

Wales

(Additional locations will be announced later in the year.)

What will be different about the new stores

The new outlets are not standard cosmetic shops — they are designed as experience-led beauty hubs:

Beauty services inside stores

  • Ear piercing
  • Manicures
  • Eyebrow threading
  • Beauty consultations

These will be offered via in-store Beauty Studios (The Standard)

Strategy behind the move

Superdrug is shifting away from small convenience stores toward larger destination shops because:

  1. Customers want advice and treatments, not just products (Cosmetics Business)
  2. Retail parks offer easier parking and higher basket spend (Retail Gazette)
  3. Physical retail remains popular for beauty shopping (Cosmetics Business)

Company leadership described the programme as a “vote of confidence” in brick-and-mortar retail. (The Standard)

Economic impact

Bottom line

Superdrug’s 2026 rollout marks a shift in UK retail strategy:
fewer small convenience beauty stores
more large, service-based destination shops

It shows beauty retail moving toward experience + services + healthcare products under one roof rather than pure product selling.

Superdrug — case studies and expert commentary

Below is a deeper analysis of the expansion plan (30 new UK retail-park stores), focusing on real-world retail strategy patterns, comparable industry behaviour, and what it signals for the future of beauty retail.

Case studies

1) The “Experience Store” model replacing convenience retail

What Superdrug is doing

  • Large-format stores designed to immerse, inform and engage customers (Retail Gazette)
  • Services: beauty treatments, ear piercing, manicures, healthcare clinics (The Standard)
  • Goal: create destination locations rather than quick-purchase shops (Retail Gazette)

Comparable industry case

Beauty retail across the UK is moving toward service-led stores:

  • Consultation-based shopping
  • Skincare diagnostics
  • Human staff expertise over pure e-commerce convenience (Vogue)

Why it works

Online retail wins on speed
Physical retail wins on confidence and discovery

Beauty products have high hesitation cost:

  • shade matching
  • skin compatibility
  • treatment advice

So retailers monetize time spent in store instead of speed of purchase.

Retail parks support this because shoppers stay longer and browse more (CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com)

Result:
The shop becomes a service hub, not a shelf warehouse.

2) Retail-park migration strategy (location economics)

Superdrug’s shift

Focus on:

  • Gallagher Retail Park (Dundee)
  • Crawley
  • Leeds White Rose
  • Cwmbran Retail Park (The Standard)

Market behaviour behind it

Retail parks are the fastest-growing UK physical retail format
Forecast growth: +13.7% spending by 2029 (CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com)

Why customers prefer them:

Case study comparison

High street = transactional shopping
Retail park = lifestyle trip

So the beauty industry is relocating to where people want to spend time, not just pass through.

Strategic effect:
Footfall quality > footfall volume

3) Competitive response to pharmacy-beauty rivalry

The biggest competitor is:

Boots

Boots has:

  • strong wellness services
  • growing private healthcare offerings
  • expanding beauty brands (The Times)

Superdrug counter-strategy

Instead of going premium, it differentiates by:

  • affordability
  • services accessible to everyday shoppers
  • social-media-friendly stores

This turns the battle into:

Premium authority vs accessible expertise

4) The hybrid online-offline defence strategy

E-commerce hurt drugstores for a decade.

Superdrug’s response:

  • discovery in store
  • purchase anywhere (online or offline)
  • repeat loyalty after testing products

This follows the modern retail formula:

Channel Purpose
Online reorder
Store decision making

Physical retail becomes marketing + sampling.

Expert commentary

1) This is not expansion — it’s repositioning

Opening 30 stores is less about growth and more about redefining the brand identity:

Old identity → cheap high-street chemist
New identity → affordable beauty destination

Retailers only invest in large stores when they believe:

browsing itself is profitable

2) Retail parks signal a major shift in urban retail

High streets optimized for speed
Retail parks optimized for experience

Beauty retail now behaves closer to:

  • fashion retail
  • leisure retail
  • wellness services

Not pharmacy retail anymore.

3) Beauty retail is becoming service-led healthcare

Superdrug repeatedly links:

beauty + treatments + healthcare (Retail Gazette)

That’s important.

The future competition will be:

  • clinics
  • dermatology advice platforms
  • wellness providers

Not just makeup brands.

4) Why investors like this strategy

The model improves margins through:

  • service revenue
  • higher basket sizes
  • longer dwell time
  • reduced online returns

Physical interaction reduces refund risk — a huge cost in beauty e-commerce.

Final takeaway

The 30-store plan is actually a structural industry change signal:

Superdrug is betting that:

The future of retail is not selling products —
it is helping customers decide what to buy.

And retail parks are the perfect environment for decision-making retail.

 

Categories: GB News, UK News