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Boots Group PLC changed its name to Alliance Boots plc on 31 July 2006, following the completion of its merger with Alliance UniChem Plc. The original Boots Group subsidiaries are once again under the umbrella holding company name of The Boots Company PLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliance Boots. Separately, Alliance UniChem Plc, the holding company for the former Alliance UniChem original companies, also became a wholly- owned subsidiary of Alliance Boots. The Boots Company PLC known as Boots and financially branded Boots The Chemists, is the dominant pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom, with outlets in most high streets throughout the country. In recent years they have diversified their business from a traditional pharmacy to one offering one-hour photo-processing, opticians, and even home appliances in certain stores. In the 21st century Boots has faced increased competition from the main UK supermarkets, and it has struggled to grow. Its main subsidiary is Boots The Chemists Limited.
About Boots Boots was founded in Nottingham, England by John Boot in 1849 and transformed into a national chain by his son Jesse. Its current logo is based on a design made by one of Jesse's signwriters in the 1870s. The chain was established during that time, and for the first time they became official dispensing chemist, stocking prescription medicines. By the onset of the First World War there were over five hundred Boots shops. In 1968 it acquired the 622- strong Timothy Whites and Taylors Ltd chain. Boots now has almost one thousand five hundred stores including some stores overseas. The Alliance Boots group in total have nearly 3,000 stores. The company, consists of several subsidiary companies, such as Boots The Chemists Limited, which is the main retail chain. The parent company is now called Alliance Boots plc. The other main trading companies are Boots Opticians, and Boots Retail International. Originally with their own logos, all parts of the original Boots Company group now share the oval Boots logo. Alliance Boots plc has a separate logo, however. In 1982 the company opened a new manufacturing plant in Cramlington, Northumberland. Since the appointment of a new Chief Executive from ASDA, the company has been given a refocus, inevitably leading to more outsourcing (such as Boots's own warehouses at its Head Office base in Nottingham - now owned by UNIPART) and job losses at Nottingham. In a break from tradition, Boots is reported to be preparing to lease out a main office building (vacant due to the level of staff losses) on its own private estate in Beeston, Nottinghamshire. Boots from 1989 to 2001 owned Halfords and once owned FADS, a home furnishings store and Do-It-All, a joint venture with W H Smith. Childrens world — similar to Mothercare — was another Boots company. They also considered moving into selling sex toys but in 2005 announced that they had decided not to. * Merger with Alliance UniChem On the October 1 2005, rumours began to spread that Boots and Alliance UniChem were planning to merge, although there had been no official announcement. This was formally announced on the October 3 by the Chairman of the Boots Group, Sir Nigel Rudd. He said of the deal, "I believe that this merger does an awful lot for customers, for shareholders, and for indeed the employees". The merger would create a chain of pharmacies with 17% of the UK market. Alliance UniChem's UK retail pharmacies are mainly "community pharmacies" located in small retail precincts in residential areas, whereas Boots shops are mostly on the main high streets of towns, cities and suburbs and in major shopping centres. The merger will also give Boots the major international presence which it has struggled to develop on its own. The declining state of the retail industry in the UK has led to the merger and will help the company to face the competition given to it by supermarkets such as Tesco and ASDA that have entered the pharmaceutical market. On Monday, 3rd October 2005, the merger was confirmed, and the new group took on the name Alliance Boots. After the merger it became Britain's dominant pharmaceutical retailer and wholesaler. On 7 February 2006, the Office of Fair Trading decided not to refer the proposed acquisition by Boots Group PLC of Alliance UniChem Plc to the Competition Commission. This was due to the fact Boots agreed to sell 96 shops in local areas where there was a substantial lessening of competition. Boots will now operate 2,500 Chemist Stores across the United Kingdom. The merger became effective on Monday 31 July, 2006. Expansion and diversification
Advantage Card The Advantage Card is the loyalty card of The Boots Company. It is billed as "the UK's most rewarding" loyalty card as it offers four points per pound spent. Each point is worth £0.01. Points can be exchanged for products, but only as whole payment, for example a card with 384 points on could buy a £3.79 product, but not a £3.99 product, even if the difference was offered in cash. In the Republic of Ireland, the card offers 1c for every Euro spent; UK cards cannot be used in the Republic, and visa versa. International Since 1936, there have been Boots stores outside the UK. Stores in countries as widely spread as New Zealand, Canada (see Pharma Plus) and France were all closed in the 1980s. A new roll-out started in 1997 with The Netherlands, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan but only Thailand survives, as an independent chain. Stores in Ireland have survived under the Boots company, with flagship stores on Dublin's Grafton Street, Dundrum, Limerick, Galway and various Cork locations. In other countries (including USA, Switzerland and Hong Kong), Boots products are sold from instore 'implants' in department stores and other drugstores, such as Watson's. Financial performance These financial results are of Boots Group PLC as a stand- alone company, before the Alliance UniChem Plc merger and the change of name to Alliance Boots plc. The Boots Estate The Boots Estate features a range of listed buildings, notably D6 and D10 which are both Grade I, and D31, D36, and D90 which are Grade II. Staff enjoy a staff restaurant, coffee and snack shops, newsagent, a branch of Boots The Chemist, and bank situated within beautifully landscaped grounds. The landscaped grounds include the Millennium Garden which features a herb garden (with some plants that Jesse used in his original herbal remedies) in the shape of a goose foot - harking back to Jesse's original shop on Goosegate in Nottingham. The Boots Museum is now closed (due to cost cutting) and historical items are in storage. The Head Offices are adorned with some interesting artefacts from old stores and feature two 'shops' where new displays and advertising are trialled. Over the summer months staff work hard to create Christmas displays in the second of the two shops hidden from view with only certain staff permitted access. The plans for Christmas - a major trading time for any retailer - start to take shape in September and late Summer as stores gradually move shelving and displays ready for the massive increase in products and stock. Stores are therefore in a state of flux for almost half the year, although the Company makes great efforts to keep disruption to a minimum to its customers and is very much focused on customer navigation of its stores. The Head Office site also features its own trial suite where new products are sampled and tested by consumers before the final decision is made to launch a product. However Boots also develops and produces a range of products for major names. Since the merger of Boots and Alliance UniChem, it has become unclear about the future role of the Boots Estate within the combined Alliance Boots. The Alliance Boots Head Office is situated in London (on the same premises as the old Alliance UniChem Head Office), meaning some buildings on the Boots Estate will now become redundant. The Alliance Boots Wholesale division is being run from the Alliance UniChem site in Weybridge, Surrey, whilst the Community Chemists operation is being run from the Alliance UniChem site in Feltham, Middlesex. This means that the only substantial divisions of Alliance Boots which is being run from the Boots Estate in Nottingham is that of Health and Beauty (operators of the larger Boots stores, which sell a larger range of products in addition to the core medicine range, and Boots Manufacturing (responsible for producing in house toiletries and medicinal products). Boots Healthcare International In October 2005 Boots agreed to sell its over-the-counter medicines business, Boots Healthcare International, which markets brands such as Clearasil, Nurofen, Optrex, E45 and Strepsils, to the Anglo-Dutch household products company Reckitt Benckiser for £1.936 billion. Boots used £1.43 billion of the sale proceeds to make a one-off special dividend payment, which roughly equalised its market capitalisation with that of Alliance UniChem prior to the merger between the two groups. The remainder will be retained for investment. The disposal was completed on 31 January 2006. See also | ||||||||||
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