Boots could close more than 200 stores in cost-cutting bid for its US owner Walgreens, according to reports
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), which is based out of Deerfield, Illinois, announced in April that it had started taking ‘decisive steps’ to cut costs in the UK.
The company, which also owns the Walgreens pharmaceutical chain in America, is now reportedly considering closing more than 200 Boots stores in the UK.
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Hide AdThis afternoon, Sky News tweeted: ‘Sky Sources say the U.S.- based owner of Boots The Chemist is considering closing more than 200 of its UK stores.’
Boots has approximately 43 sites in West Sussex and approximately 38 in East Sussex.
In April WBA revealed that it was looking at poor performing shops as well ‘opportunities for consolidation’.
It is also said it was looking at ways to overhaul its pharmacy business.
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Hide AdThe company reported a 2.3 per cent drop in like-for-like UK retail sales in its second quarter to February 28, while comparable pharmacy sales dropped 1.5 per cent.
Tough trading in the US also saw the wider group warn over full-year earnings, with boss Stefano Pessina branding it the ‘most difficult quarter we have had since the formation of Walgreens Boots Alliance’.
WBA was formed in 2014 after Walgreens agreed to purchases the remaining 55 per cent of Boots that it did not already own.