Walgreens Boots Alliance — BrandWiki

Walgreens Boots Alliance

Overview

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.

type	Public
predecessors	Walgreen Company Alliance Boots
founded	December 31, 2014
hq location city	Deerfield, Illinois
defunct	August 28, 2025
fate	Acquired by Sycamore Partners and split into five companies
successors	Walgreens The Boots Group VillageMD CareCentrix Shields Health Solutions
hq location country	U.S.
area served	Worldwide
key people	Stefano Pessina (executive chairman) Tim Wentworth (CEO) Ornella Barra (COO)
industry	Retail and pharmaceuticals
revenue	US$147.7 billion (2024)
operating income	US$–14.1 billion (2024)
net income	US$–8.64 billion (2024)
assets	US$81.04 billion (2024)
equity	US$12.01 billion (2024)
num employees	312,000
num employees year	2024
locations	12,712 (2024)
divisions	* Retail Pharmacy U.S. Duane Reade Walgreens * Retail Pharmacy International Boots Almus Pharmaceuticals Farmacias Ahumada Farmacias Benavides
website	walgreensbootsalliance.com
footnotes	Financials .‡R1R‡

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.

Operations

Retail Pharmacy USA

Walgreens and Duane Reade operated within the Retail Pharmacy USA division of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Both businesses sell prescription and non-prescription drugs, and a range of household items, including personal care and beauty products. Walgreens provides access to consumer goods and services, plus pharmacy, photo department, health and wellness services in the United States through its retail drugstores. The division had 9,021 drugstores as of August 31, 2020.[14]

Walgreens has stores in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

On October 27, 2015, Walgreens announced the purchase of competitor Rite Aid for $17.2 billion (equivalent to $ in ).[15] However, that deal was later scrapped due to antitrust concerns in favor of a $5.18 billion deal (equivalent to $ in ), in which Walgreens only acquired half of Rite Aid locations.[16]

On September 19, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission approved a fourth deal agreement to purchase 1,932 Rite Aid stores for $4.38 billion total (equivalent to $ in ), which was completed in January 2018.[17]

In June 2024, Walgreens announced that only 75% of its 8,600 U.S. locations were profitable and that the company was planning to shutter more than 2,000 locations by the year 2027. The stock price of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) fell by more than 55% between January and July of 2024.[18]

Retail Pharmacy International

Boots formed the main part of the Retail Pharmacy International division of the company. The Boots brand has a history stretching back over 170 years[19] in the United Kingdom (UK) and is a familiar sight on Britain's high streets.

Since 1936, there have been Boots stores outside the UK. Stores in countries as widely spread as New Zealand, Canada (see Pharma Plus), and France were all closed in the 1980s. As of 2022, there are Boots-branded stores outside the UK in Ireland, Norway and Thailand, with Boots franchise operations in the Middle East and Indonesia.[20]

The remainder of the division was made up of the pharmacies Benavides in Mexico and Farmacias Ahumada (FASA) in Chile.[20]

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]