Boots’ 1,800 stores across the UK and Ireland are changing hands after Wittington Investments, the holding company of Canada’s Weston family, paid £6.7 billion this week for the pharmacy to beauty chain. The deal covers Boots Opticians and the No7 Beauty Company, along with Boots’ operations in Thailand and its franchise businesses. Other parts of the wider Boots empire, including Farmacias Benavides and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland, will remain under the control of Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family.
What matters now is execution. The new owners have set out three broad areas of delivery: expanding healthcare services, upgrading the store estate and improving the digital shopping experience, though timelines and specifics remain largely undefined.
The clearest stated priority is healthcare. The Weston family have made clear they want to expand Boots’ healthcare services to customers. When shoppers will be able to avail of the new services is not yet clear, but the move could prove lucrative for the brand. With strains on NHS services, ramping up its healthcare arm could make it easier and quicker for Brits to treat mild issues. Customers can already be treated at the pharmacy for common ailments such as UTIs, sinusitis and earaches instead of going to the GP, and its online doctor service gives customers access to weight-loss jabs like Ozempic.
Store upgrades are also high on the agenda, according to the new Canadian owners, although exactly what this will look like has not been made clear. Sofie Willmott, an associate director and analyst at GlobalData Retail, told the BBC that the chain should consider investing in its smaller stores. “I think that is something that they need to kind of catch up with,” she added. Boots has already been working to keep pace with competitors in recent years, stocking a range of trendy Korean skincare brands and luxury makeup, and bringing out dupes to rival brands such as Medicube, including Salicylic Acid Exfoliating Face Pads which can be bought for £5.
Meanwhile, on the digital side, the Westons have promised to “optimise” digital shopping for customers, though details are still scant on what this may look like. Boots has had the modern shopper on its radar for some time. Just last month, the brand launched its No.7 skincare brand on TikTok shop as it looked to fight off competition from rivals such as Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty, who already sell on the app. Further Boots brands and products are set to launch on the app over the coming months. Its products are also available to order on Deliveroo and Uber Eats, a route that appeals to younger customers.
The chain enters this new chapter from a position of relative strength. Founded over 177 years ago, Boots has held its own in challenging times for Britain’s retail scene, seeing off the likes of Woolworths, Debenhams and Wilko. Whether the promised healthcare expansion, store upgrades and digital overhaul arrive on any workable timetable is the open question shoppers and staff will now be watching.