A visit to the Great British high street is never complete without a quick nip into Boots, whether you are in the market for a fresh tube of ultra-black mascara or a lunchtime meal deal, the beauty and pharmacy chain will never fail to deliver.
Sadly, though, Boots has announced its plans to shut 300 stores within a year, in a move to consolidate the business, which will see the number of stores reduced from 2,200 to 1,900 while four have already been axed since the start of 2023. The closures come even though strong quarterly results were posted by Boots, with a 13.4% jump in retail sales and a ninth consecutive quarter of market share growth.
On a Q3 earnings analyst call, CFO James Kehoe specified the closing figure. He stated that evolving the store estate this way permits Boots to focus investment more acutely in individual stores and concentrate its team members where they are needed, consistently delivering a reliable and excellent service in a fresh and up-to-date environment.
A WBA spokeswoman confirmed to the Mirror that even though Boots employs more than 52,000 staff, the closures are not expected to lead to redundancies, and affected staff will be offered work at nearby stores.
Mr. Kehoe informed analysts that they will continue to optimize their locations and opening hours, and expect to shut down an additional 300 locations in the UK as well as 150 locations in the USA.
Stores at Church Street Malvern, King William Street London, Salford Shopping Centre in Greater Manchester and The Port Arcades Shopping Centre have already closed since the spring. The company stated that following the planned closures, in most cases there would be an alternative store less than 3 miles away.
Boots previously closed more than 200 stores commencing in 2019 over an 18-month period with many within walking distance of each other and announced that 48 opticians were closing in 2020, resulting in 4,000 job losses. The covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis which resulted in soaring inflation, hit the high street hard. a shift to online shopping and a rise in energy costs following the pandemic are also taking a toll and many of the high street shops have been struggling to keep going.
The chain stated that even though several of the closures resulted in loss-making, two-thirds of them were within walking distance of each other.
WBA said that this was by no means Boots coming away from the High Street but that it was essentially about removing overlapping stores. The group was able to keep its stores open since it was deemed an essential retailer, but customers chose to purchase online or given the restrictions on socializing, reduced their spending on items such as hair care or cosmetics.
82% of people within the United Kingdom remained within a 10-minute drive of a Boots store following the closure. Boots gave a statement in which it said that the successful transformation plan of the company has created a stable and strong platform for expansion, and will accelerate further, including ongoing investment into the rejuvenation of the store estate. In addition to uplifting existing stores, Boots will continue to consolidate a number of stores over the next year, in close proximity to each other. It went on to state that evolving the store estate this way allowed Boots to concentrate its team members where they were needed, focusing investment more acutely in individual stores with the ambition of consistently delivering a reliable and excellent service in a fresh, up-to-date environment.
