Early history
Boots was established in 1849, by John Boot.[8] After his father's death in 1860, Jesse Boot, aged 10, helped his mother run the family's herbal medicine shop in Nottingham,[9] which was incorporated as Boot and Co. Ltd in 1883, becoming Boots Pure Drug Company Ltd in 1888. In 1920, Jesse Boot sold the company to the American United Drug Company.[10] However, because of deteriorating economic circumstances in North America, Boots was sold back into British hands in 1933.[10] The grandson of the founder, John Boot, who inherited the title Baron Trent from his father, headed the company.[11] The Boots Pure Drug Company name was changed to The Boots Company Limited in 1971.[12]
Between 1898 and 1966, many branches of Boots incorporated a lending library department, known as Boots Book-Lovers' Library.[13]
Boots diversified into the research and manufacturing of drugs with its development of the Ibuprofen painkiller during the 1960s, invented by John Nicholson and Stewart Adams.[14] The company was awarded the Queen's Award For Technical Achievement for this in 1987. A major research focus of Boots in the 1980s, was the drug for congestive heart failure, Manoplax.[15] The withdrawal from market of Manoplax due to safety concerns in 1993, caused major pressure from investors, and in 1994, Boots divested its prescription drugs division, which had become no longer viable, to BASF.[16][17] In 2006, it sold the Nurofen brand to Reckitt Benckiser.[18]
In 1968, Boots acquired the 622-strong Timothy Whites and Taylors Ltd chain.[10] Boots expanded into Canada by purchasing the Tamblyn Drugs chain in 1979.[19]
Expansion in the 1980s and beyond
In 1982, the company opened a new manufacturing plant in Cramlington, Northumberland.[10] In the early 1990s, Boots began to diversify and bought Halfords, the bicycle and car parts business in 1991.[20] The company offered numerous private label products, e.g., offering the PT400 typewriter, a rebadged Silverette model by Silver Seiko Ltd. of Japan. It also developed the Children's World business of larger out of town superstores in the 1980s, but sold this chain to Mothercare in 1996.[21] Halfords was sold in 2002.[22] Boots Opticians Ltd was formed in 1987, with the acquisition of Clement Clarke Ltd and Curry and Paxton Ltd. Boots Opticians became the UK's second-largest retail optics chain. In 2009, Boots Opticians acquired Dollond & Aitchison
Alliance Boots
In October 2005, a merger with Alliance UniChem was announced by the then chairman, Sir Nigel Rudd. The CEO Richard Baker left, and the new group became Alliance Boots plc. The merger became effective on 31 July 2006.[28] Alliance Boots was purchased by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Stefano Pessina, the deputy chairman of the company, in April 2007 for £11.1 billion, taking the company private and beating a rival bid from Guy Hands's Terra Firma Capital Partners.[29] This was the first ever instance of a FTSE 100 company having been bought by a private equity firm.[30] In June 2008, the group headquarters were moved to Zug, Switzerland. According to John Ralfe, Boots' former head of corporate finance, "the UK has lost about £100m a year in tax as result".[31]
No. 7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum
In 2007, Professor Chris Griffiths' University of Manchester team found the Serum, formerly, No. 7[34] Refine & Rewind Beauty Serum stimulated the production of fibrillin-1 and appeared to smooth out wrinkles, (published in the British Journal of Dermatology).[35][36] In 2007, an independent investigation by the BBC's Horizon programme caused a run on a product in the same product range after it was found to be the only one to have a beneficial effect.[37][38][39][40]
Sale of homeopathic products
In 2009, Boots Superintendent Pharmacist Paul Bennett was interviewed by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee about the company's sale of homeopathic medicines. He told the committee that the company had no evidence to suggest that homeopathic medicines are efficacious but Boots sold them anyway, for reasons of "consumer choice".[44] The comments attracted media attention.[45][46] In 2010, protesters staged a mass homeopathy "overdose" outside Boots shops.[47][48]
Walgreens
In June 2012, it was announced that Walgreens, the United States' largest chemist chain, would purchase a 45% stake in Alliance Boots for US$6.7 billion. The deal was said to be a long-term plan to give maximum exposure to both brands, Boots more so in the US and, Walgreens more so in the UK and in China through Boots' presence in that market. The deal gave the option to complete a full merger of the organisations within three years costing an extra $9.5bn.[49] Walgreens confirmed on 6 August 2014, that it would purchase the remaining 55% and merge with Alliance Boots to form a new holding company, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.[50]
In August 2012, Boots began stocking convenience food products from Irish retailer Musgrave's SuperValu chain.[51]
Charging the NHS for carrying out unnecessary medicine reviews
In April 2016, the Pharmacists' Defence Association stated that company managers were exploiting the NHS by insisting that each outlet carry out medicine use reviews, even if patients did not need them. The NHS paid £28 per review up to a maximum of 400 per shop per year.[52]
2016 reports of workplace pressure
At the same time as the article about medicine reviews, The Guardian published a longer report on the same day called 'How Boots went Rogue', which told the story from the eyes of a Boots pharmacist talking about working conditions at the company. It also covered the buyout of the company and the owners' financial approach.[53] Four days later it published an article with emails from some pharmacists who had written about how "the chain allegedly compels staff to compromise ethics for targets". The article said "The letters editor believes this may be the largest haul of mail he has ever received about a single article. Others rang in."[54]
There were two further follow-up articles in the days following.[55][56] The Guardian subsequently noted a letter purporting to be from an "independent pharmacist" criticising its stance on the issue which it identified as having been edited and amended by one of the firm's vice-presidents. The letter was emailed as a Word document and contained tracked changes.[57]
Supply of the "morning after pill"
In July 2017, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) revealed that Boots was selling emergency contraceptive medication at four times the cost price and had refused requests to join rival pharmacy retail chains, including Superdrug and Tesco, which had agreed to cease profiting financially in this way.[60] In a written response to BPAS, Boots revealed that they were frequently contacted by individuals who disapproved of the dispensing of such medication, which might be viewed as "incentivising inappropriate use",[61][62] an assertion which campaigners described as "insulting and sexist".[63]
BPAS called on the public to boycott the company and email them requesting that they reverse the policy. Following the boycott's launch, lawyers representing Boots alleged that the online complaint form created by BPAS had resulted in a "torrent of abuse" to five of Boots' senior managers and that BPAS had facilitated and tacitly encouraged harassment by naming individual staff members on the form.
Pharmacist suicide
On 25 October 2017, a debate was held in the House of Commons about pharmacists' mental health and the support that employers give to employees. Much of the discussion concerned the suicide of a Boots pharmacist, Alison Stamps, in May 2015, and Boots' response was criticised. Part of a letter from Alison Stamps' parents was read out by MP Kevan Jones, which said: "It is clear that Alison was a victim of corporate greed and collateral damage by an uncaring company intent only on its own agenda."[68][69]
BBC documentary and press coverage in 2018
On 8 January 2018, the BBC broadcast an Inside Out documentary called "Boots: Pharmacists under Pressure?" about the deaths of three patients following dispensing errors. It also featured accounts from three whistleblowers, who alleged that there were staffing issues at the company. One of the whistleblowers, who had formerly worked in a patient safety role, stated that Boots had calculated that in excess of £100m additional investment in staffing was required each year in its pharmacies and to meet the company's expectations of its staff.[70] The BBC also published two articles on the same day.[71][72][73] A separate article almost three weeks later told the story of a patient who was given the wrong medicine in December 2017 by a "frazzled" pharmacist. The patient said there was clearly a staffing problem.[74]
Overcharging the NHS for products
In February 2018, Boots was criticised for charging excessive prices for low-value products supplied to the NHS: in one case, it was found that the pharmacy was billing in excess of £1,500 for a moisturiser which normally retailed at less than £2.[77] In May 2018, a further investigation by The Times found that on at least five occasions between 2013 and 2017, Boots had charged over £3,200 for a medicinal mouthwash used to treat mouth ulcers in chemotherapy patients, in comparison to an independent supplier which had charged the equivalent of £93 for the same product. The investigation found that Boots had ordered the product from Alliance Healthcare, a supplier owned by Boots' parent company. In response, a spokesman for Walgreens Boots Alliance rejected accusations of overcharging the NHS and said that the bespoke nature of the orders, often requested at short notice, results in the high cost.[78][79]
In April 2019, Boots announced it would sponsor the England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland women's football teams in a multi-million pound/euro deal. The deal was to last three years and cover the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup and the UEFA Women's Euro 2021 competitions.[80]
Rationalisation
In May 2019, Boots announced that it was closing 200+ underperforming shops.[81][82] Then, in July 2020, the group announced that it would be cutting 4,000 jobs and shutting 48 optician stores in the UK.[83]
In November 2024, Anthony Hemmerdinger was appointed the new Managing Director of both the UK and Ireland.[84] In December 2024, it was reported that Sycamore Partners were lined up to acquire Walgreens Boots Alliance in early 2025.[6]
New ownership: The Boots Group
Following the completion of Sycamore Partners acquisition of Walgreens Boots Alliance in August 2025, ownership of the company transferred to The Boots Group, a UK-headquartered private company comprising Boots UK & Ireland, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Company, Alliance Healthcare Germany, Farmacias Benavides in Mexico, retail pharmacies in Thailand, retail investments in China, and international franchise operations in the Middle East and Indonesia.[85]
