Boots: 1,300 branches affected by ‘small changes’ to opening hours
Boots UK’s proposals to “slightly” reduce some of its pharmacies’ opening hours will affect “approximately” 1,300 branches, a spokesperson has told C+D.
Boots UK on sale?
In an email sent to Boots UK employees last month, CEO Sebastian James wrote that it is “realistic to think” that Boots UK could become “an independent company again”.
However, “there will be a period when the exact way forward is not known”, he added.
Sky News reported on January 11 that US private equity firms Bain Capital and UK-based CVC Capital were pursuing a multi-billion-pound takeover of Boots UK.
Meanwhile, supermarket chain Asda is reportedly considering a takeover of Boots UK, according to an article in the Mail on Sunday published on January 15.
The spokesperson reiterated that these “small changes” represent an average reduction of 6% of pharmacy hours across the UK, although this figure will vary across the affected stores, as C+D reported last week (January 24).
Hours will be reduced in stores with “lower demand at certain times”, which in some cases will mean that “pharmacy hours will match core hours”, they added.
Boots UK first confirmed its intention to “slightly reduce supplementary opening hours” at selected pharmacies last month (January 19), following a “recent review”.
The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) commented at the time that “even small reductions in opening hours when aggregated may add up to a significant reduction of access to valuable pharmacy services across Boots”.
Meanwhile last week (January 24), the union said it had been approached by several pharmacists who flagged that they had been advised by local management of proposals to reduce their hours by “more than 10%”.
However, when approached by C+D last week, Boots UK would not comment on whether the proposed changes to some pharmacies’ opening hours will indeed result in a 10% or more reduction to pharmacists’ hours in some cases.
