Boots improved its market share but suffered, but this was offset by a “very weak retail environment” Oli Scarff/Getty ImagesThe American owner of Boots has made its UK retail business a focus of a new $1 billion cost-cutting drive after a further deterioration in its financial performance. Walgreens Boots Alliance said yesterday that it had initiated “global smart spending and smart organisation programs” focusing on the UK, its American pharmacies and other “global functions”. Boots became part of Walgreens Boots Alliance in 2014 when Walgreens took over the Anglo-Swiss Alliance Boots. Today Walgreens has 18,500 shops in 11 countries and employs about 415,000 people, and owns beauty brands including No7, Liz Earle, Soap & Glory and Botanics. The $67 billion retailer is run by Stefano Pessina, a billionaire Italian entrepreneur who built the company from his father’s struggling pharmacy business in Naples.

Source: The Times December 20, 2018 16:52 UTC