The “potential sale” of Walgreens Boots Alliance’s UK businesses “that may or may not happen in the future” is not at the top of the PDA members’ concerns, PDA director Paul Day told C+D today (December 6), although members have given “feedback” on the news.

The PDA does not expect the rumours to have “any direct impact on the pay talks” between it and Boots, Mr Day told C+D.

It follows a Sky News report late last week that Boots’ parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance is in “exploratory” talks with Goldman Sachs to “advise it on a review of options” for its UK business. Although an option, the rumoured talks will not necessarily lead to the health and beauty giant divesting of Boots pharmacies, according to "city sources" in the report. 

Walgreens Boots Alliance refused to comment on "market speculation", although it is following "a renewed set of priorities and strategic direction for the group”, the company told C+D at the weekend. 

Boots declined to comment.

In Boots’ interest to “avoid” industrial action

Pay negotiations between the PDA Union members and Boots started this summer and cover 6,000 pharmacists employed by the multiple. C+D reported last week (December 3) that, according to the PDA, Boots had proposed “an improved” pay offer to its pharmacists, “the best available through discussion”.

It comes just over a month after the PDA announced that Boots pharmacists had rejected the multiple’s initial offer for a 2% pay rise in October, referring to it as a “sub-inflationary 2% increase”.

“More pharmacists are talking about industrial action than ever before”, Mr Day told C+D, despite the talks taking a more hopeful turn last week.

It would be in Walgreens Boots Alliance’s interest “to avoid such action” if they are indeed considering selling Boots, he continued, as “a company without its workforce taking industrial action” would presumably “be easier to sell than one with an industrial dispute”.

The Boots UK sale "exploration" rumours come just a month after McKesson confirmed it was selling its UK businesses – which includes Lloydspharmacy and AAH – after months of speculation, to private equity firm Aurelius Group for £477 million.

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