A Lancashire retailer has become one of the first newsagents in the UK to promote and sell Avon products in store.

David Lomas, who owns Lomas News in Bury, said he had been looking for ways to generate more income and contacted the beauty and household giant to enquire about selling their products.

“They said it would be fine, so we went ahead and put a stand in the shop with brochures”, said Lomas. “The customers do the leg work as they come in and fill out an order form, we put in an order every three weeks and then they collect it in store.

“It has been a learning curve but it’s profitable – we made £350 on our Christmas order.”

Lomas said he has been able to sell some products below Avon’s asking price because of the high profit margin, driving more customers to order from him.

Want to find out more about retailers’ sales-boosting ideas? Sign up to Better Retailing for free.