| Type | Private limited company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Pharmaceuticals Healthcare Beauty |
| Founded | 1849 (Nottingham) |
| Founder(s) | Jesse Boot |
| Headquarters | Nottingham, United Kingdom |
| Area served | United Kingdom |
| Products | No 7 - Makeup Soltan - Sun cream Almus - Generic Drugs |
| Parent | Alliance Boots |
| Subsidiaries | Boots Opticians |
| Website | Corporate website Retail website |
Boots UK Limited[1] (commonly known as Boots) is a leading pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom, with outlets in most high streets throughout the country. The company has been a subsidiary of Alliance Boots since 31 July 2006, following the merger of its then-parent Boots Group plc with Alliance UniChem plc, and combines the former Boots the Chemist Ltd. and Boots Stores Ltd.
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Boots was established in 1849, by John Boot. After his father's death in 1860, Jesse Boot, aged 10 helped his mother run the family's herbal medicine shop in Nottingham, England.[2] In 1920, Jesse Boot sold the company to the American United Drug Company.[3] However, deteriorating economic circumstances in North America saw Boots sold back into British hands in 1933[3] with the grandson of the founder, John Boot, who inherited the title Baron Trent from his father, at the head of the Company.[4] In 1968 it acquired the 622-strong Timothy Whites and Taylors Ltd chain.[3]
In 1982, the company opened a new manufacturing plant in Cramlington, Northumberland.[3]
In 1991, Boots began to diversify and bought Halfords, the bicycle and car parts business.[5] The company later sold Halfords in 2002.[6]
In the early 1990s, the Company also developed the Children's World business but sold it in 1996 to Mothercare.[7]
Boots branched into dentistry in 1998, with a number of stores offering this service.[8] Boots sold its Do-It-All home furnishings chain to Focus in 1998.[9]
Boots also made a venture into "Wellbeing" services offering customers treatments ranging from facials, homeopathy, and nutritional advice to laser eye surgery and Botox but these services were abandoned in 2003.[10]
In late 2004, Boots sold the Laser eye surgery services to Optical Express.[11]
Boots has also diversified into the research and manufacturing of drugs. It developed Ibuprofen, a painkiller and in 1994 divested production to BASF,[12] and in 2006 sold the Nurofen brand to Reckitt Benckiser.[13]
Boots considered selling sex toys in 2005 but subsequently cancelled this plan.[14]
On 1 October 2005, rumours began to circulate that Boots and Alliance UniChem were planning a merger, although there had been no official announcement. This was formally announced on 3 October by the Chairman of the Boots Group, Sir Nigel Rudd. On 3 October 2005, the merger was confirmed, and the new group took on the name Alliance Boots plc. The merger became effective on 31 July 2006.[15] The new group was subsequently bought by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Stefano Pessina, the deputy chairman of Alliance Boots, taking the company private.
The Boots Estate, located near the Nottingham suburb of Beeston, 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, an Opticians branch and cash point 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 United Kingdom.
The Boots Museum is now closed (due to cost cutting) and historical items are in storage.
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