Alliance Boots has reassured staff that their jobs are secure in the face of the company's buyout by US pharmacy giant Walgreens.

Walgreen's announcement last week that it would increase its shares in the multinational company from 45 per cent to 100 per cent in the first quarter of next year was "good news" for Boots teams across the UK, an Alliance Boots spokesperson said yesterday (August 11), because they would benefit from being part of a "stronger and much larger" organisation.

The company's headquarters in Nottingham – where it has been based for more than 160 years – was "at the heart" of Boots' heritage and would continue to be an "important hub within the global enterprise", the spokesperson said.

Boots would play a "pivotal role" as the "principal retail brand" of the new company, which will trade under the name Walgreens Boots Alliance, he said.

The "complimentary geographic footprints" of both companies meant that neither was planning to cut jobs, the spokesperson added.

Alliance Boots employs around 6,500 pharmacists in the UK and 250 across its international businesses, according to its annual report for 2013-14.

Walgreens Boots Alliance will own more than 11,000 stores across 10 countries and will have the world's largest pharmaceutical distribution network. The buyout marks the final stage of the deal announced in 2012, which set out to make the combination of the two companies "the global leader in pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing retail".

Under the new structure, Boots will be a division of the company in its own right and its headquarters will remain in Nottingham, while the global company's headquarters will be in Chicago.

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