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SECURITY staff arrived at 4am. Eager shoppers began queuing at 5am. And two hours later, Boots opened its doors early for the first time in its history as the scramble for a must-have anti-ageing serum got under way.

Thousands of customers lined up outside branches of the store across Britain in a bid to get their hands on new stocks of No7 Protect & Perfect beauty cream, which sold out some six weeks ago after scientists claimed the cream actually combats the effects of ageing.

"It was quite a scene this morning," said Arlene Forrest, manager of the store on Edinburgh's Princes Street. "We saw around 80 line up early down Princes St, It was mostly women but there were certainly some bleary-eyed men who had been kicked out of bed by their wives to come pick one up. They showed up with the name of the product on pieces of paper - I'm not sure they even knew what they were buying."

The Edinburgh store was decorated with banners declaring "It's back." Signs indicated only one tube per customer, and a specially hired security guard patrolled the display. The store said it was on course to sell all of its stock of 1,200 bottles by closing time.

Among those emerging from the store was Edith Roy, 75 - "but not for long," she said, triumphantly tapping her shopping bag. "I'm over on holiday from Belfast and just got lucky that it is on sale here - the Boots in Belfast is very small and is always sold out. I know that creams don't work, but there's always a hope, especially after the scientists endorsed it," she said.

The first 100 customers to buy the cream in each store received a "goody bag" of No.7 products worth £50.

Sales of the product, which had run at an average 10,000 pots a month since early 2005, soared.

Boots said it sold 21 weeks of stock in just three days after the programme was transmitted. The company now plans to deliver fresh supplies as soon as possible after this weekend's Bank Holiday.

There were concerns yesterday over the one-per-customer policy, as Boots - and the scientists - say the cream takes three to four months to work. A tube is enough for a month.

"I have mobility problems and it was not easy to get here," this morning," one 74-year-old customer from Livingston said. "I was prepared to buy 24, but now I'm going to have to come back. It's not fair."

Meanwhile dozens of bottles popped up on website eBay, with prices as high as £75 for the 30ml container - the store price is £17.

Graham Hardy, head of customer care at Boots, said: "We've heard many stories as to why women should be top of the list to receive the serum, including 'It's my son's wedding in three months'.

"Most women don't even know the name of the serum, simply referring to it as the miracle cream, vanishing cream or simply as 'that cream'."

Alliance Boots - the group formed last year from the £7 billion merger of Boots and Alliance UniChem - revealed on Wednesday that its Boots-branded health and beauty business had increased profits for the first time in five years.

IT WORKS: EXPERTS

SCIENTISTS at Manchester University told a BBC2 Horizon programme in March that the cream actually worked and appeared to improve skin wrinkles.

Although it has since emerged that Boots paid for the experiments, Christopher Griffiths, a professor of dermatology at Manchester University, who led the study, insisted that his work was entirely independent. He said: "

We're not linked to Boots other than doing this study. We had no vested interest in the outcome. We wanted to find out the truth. This was supplied to us in a blinded way so we did not know what we were testing."

He stressed that the research did not prove whether or not using the Boots cream resulted in long-term clinical improvement.

EBEN HARRELL
scotsman.com

Image: No.7 'miracle' anti-ageing cream endorsed by scientists on a BBC TV Picture: Getty Images

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