Walgreens Boots Alliance

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) was an American multinational holding company headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.[2] The company was formed on December 31, 2014, after Walgreens bought the 55% stake in Alliance Boots (owner of Boots UK Limited) that it did not already own. The total price of the acquisition was $4.9 billion in cash and 144.3 million common shares with fair value of $10.7 billion.[3] Walgreens had previously purchased 45% of the company for $4.0 billion and 83.4 million common shares in August 2012 with an option to purchase the remaining shares within three years.[4] Walgreens became a subsidiary of the newly created company after the transactions were completed.[5] In March 2025, the company announced that it had agreed to be taken private by Sycamore Partners for $10 billion. The private equity firm completed the acquisition in August and split WBA into five new companies: Walgreens, The Boots Group, VillageMD, CareCentrix and Shields Health Solutions.[6][7][8]

By 2022, Walgreens Boots Alliance was ranked #18 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[9] In fiscal year 2022, the company saw sales of $132.7 billion, up 0.1% from fiscal 2021, and saw net earnings increase to $4.3 billion. The combined business has operations in 9 countries, as of August 31, 2022. Walgreens had formerly operated solely within the United States and its territories, while Alliance Boots operated a more multinational business.[10]

The company was listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol WBA and a component of the S&P 500 index.[11] On June 26, 2018, Walgreens Boots Alliance replaced General Electric on the Dow Jones Industrial Index.[12][13] Walgreens Boots Alliance was subsequently replaced by Amazon on the Dow Jones Industrial Index on February 26, 2024. The company was also a component of the Nasdaq-100 index until 2024.

Operations

Former operations

With the acquisition of Alliance Boots, the company gained a pharmaceutical wholesale division, operating twice-daily deliveries to more than 16,500 delivery points in the UK alone.[21] Internationally, the Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division, which mainly operated under the Alliance Healthcare brand, supplied medicines, other healthcare products and related services to more than 115,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centers and hospitals each year from 306 distribution centers in 11 countries.[22]

In June 2021, the majority of the Alliance Healthcare wholesale division was sold to AmerisourceBergen for $ (equivalent to $ in ) in cash.[23]

Finances

For the fiscal year 2020, Walgreens Boots Alliance reported earnings of US$456 million, with an annual revenue of US$139.5 billion, an increase of 2.5% over the previous fiscal cycle. Numbers before 2014 are for Walgreens only.[24] In 2022, Walgreens Boots Alliance was ranked #18 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[9]

Product brands

Boots produces a large number of brands, including No. 7, Soltan and Botanics, Boots Pharmaceuticals, and Boots Laboratories, that Alliance Boots and Walgreens sought to launch internationally following the first share purchase in 2012.[27]

Launched in 1935, the No. 7 brand is best known for its anti-aging beauty serums, developed in Nottingham, England. The range comprises products designed to target the aging concerns of specific age groups.[28] No. 7 became available in Walgreens and Duane Reade stores in the US from November 2012, beginning in Los Angeles.

Launched in 1939, Soltan markets its UVA 5-star suncare protection, a standard of protection developed by Boots and now adopted as the benchmark for suncare products in the UK. However, in both 2004 and 2015, Watchdog, a BBC consumer investigative TV program and cited on BBC News, plus the consumer Which? magazine, each did an investigation finding the SPF rating to be lower than stated on the packaging, according to their tests.[29][30]

First launched in 1995, the Botanics range, developed in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, uses plant extracts in a variety of products and includes a range of organic products. The Boots Botanics range is also available through third party retailers.

The Boots own brand range of products includes skincare, medicines, healthcare products, and many more. Boots Laboratories skincare range for independent pharmacy customers was launched in France and Portugal in 2008/09 and is also sold in Spain, Italy, and Germany.[31]

Boots now owns Almus Pharmaceuticals, a brand of generic prescription drugs, launched in 2003.[32] It is now sold in five countries and is an umbrella brand for a wide range of lower cost generic medicines. Almus placed considerable emphasis on the design of the packaging in an attempt to reduce the number of errors by the dispensing chemist and by the patient relating to incorrect dosage which can result in either a dangerous accidental overdose or an equally dangerous under dose.

Walgreens has a self-branded line of products, "Well at Walgreens".[33]

In 2015, Walgreens Boots Alliance paid £140 million (equivalent to £ in ) for UK skincare brand Liz Earle Naturally Active, an Avon Products subsidiary since 2010.[34] Liz Earle Beauty Co co-founder Liz Earle, 'one of the biggest names in the beauty industry'[35] stayed on as an 'ambassador'[36] after selling the company for an undisclosed sum[37] and told her own Liz Earle Wellbeing magazine's website that '...alongside my new digital and print publishing venture...at the moment I'm still connected to Liz Earle Beauty Co and continue to work as a consultant to the brand that carries my name. I'm involved in new product development...'[38] In 2012, Liz Earle announced that she had left the company.[39]

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