In two years, the number of Boots stores has dropped by 392 – 18% of the company’s total portfolio.
In annual filings published yesterday (June 5), Boots revealed that it “operated 1,840 stores” as of August 31 2024.
The number reflects a drop of 392 premises since August 2022, when Boots operated 2,232 stores, according to the previous year’s filing.
Read more: BREAKING: Boots quadruples profits amid pension scheme sale
The documents showed that 337 of these closures took place between August 2023 and 2024, reflecting a 15% drop in premises numbers year-on-year.
The multiple’s 2024 accounts added that the closures have taken “the total [closure] programme to 624 store closures to date”.
It remains unclear when the programme began.
Read more: ‘Disused’ Nottingham Boots site to become 600 homes
Boots’ new total of 1,840 stores comes below its previously stated plans for a slimmed portfolio of around 1,900, which it revealed in 2023.
“The company takes an active approach to its store portfolio management to ensure the right stores are at the right locations to best serve its customers,” the report said.
Consolidation complete?
C+D understands that the figures included in the accounts refer to two separate store consolidation programmes.
The most recent consolidation announced in June 2023 involved around 300 stores and is now complete, C+D has learned.
Read more: Revealed: Boots planning up to 69 more store closures across UK
And the 624 “total programme” number refers to historic store closures over several years that have also now completed.
Last June, Walgreens Boots Alliance’s (WBA) – Boots’ parent company – said that it had plans to “reduce its presence by up to 650 Boots stores” as part of a years-long cost reduction plan due to run “through the end of fiscal 2024”.
Boots refused to confirm whether it plans to close any more stores.
Boots latest
The closure update comes amid news of apparent booming profits from the multiple.
Its latest filings said that Boots more than quadrupled its profits year-on-year to £269 million – but also revealed that the results included “a one-off past service credit in respect of the pension scheme of £219m”.
Read more: IN FULL: Boots’ parent company sold in $24bn private equity deal
“Excluding this one-off credit, operating profit decreased by £33m to £55m,” it added.
Meanwhile, pharmacy revenue also took a hit, dipping 2.2% to £2.3m.
But Boots stressed that “comparable pharmacy revenue”, which it defined as sales made at stores that “have been open for at least 12 months without closure for seven or more consecutive days and without major remodel or being subject to a natural disaster”, looked more positive.
Read more: Revealed: Which is the most searched online pharmacy?
Revenue at “comparable” stores “increased by 4.9%...mainly driven by NHS advanced services [like] Pharmacy First and Boots Online Doctor, which more than offset declines in state funded income”.
Last month, a developer revealed that more £100m has been set aside to regenerate a “disused” Boots brownfield site into a 600-home housing development in a “stunning” Nottingham location.
And Boots was this week revealed as “the UK’s most prominent online pharmacy brand” over the past year with almost four million more monthly searches than its closest competitor.
