Pharmacy sales for Walgreens Boots Alliance’s retail pharmacy international division – which includes Boots – rose 0.6% between December 2017 and February 2018, compared with the same period last year.

But retail sales dropped 2.8%, which the parent company said was “mainly due to Boots UK”, in its latest financial results published yesterday (March 28).

“On a constant currency basis” overall sales for the division also decreased 2.6% compared with the same three-month period the previous year, it noted.

Sales across Walgreen Boots Alliance increased 12% to $33 billion (£23.5bn) compared with the same quarter last year, it reported.

CEO Stefano Pessina said the company’s growth strategy had been “reflected in another good set of financial results, in which we delivered the highest sales growth in eight quarters”.