A HUGE high street pharmacy chain is set to close 300 shops.
Boots has revealed plans to close the shops across the country over the next year.
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The move will reduce the popular chain’s store portfolio from around 2,200 to just 1,900.
While Boots hasn’t confirmed the exact locations, those which are set to shut are said to be shops which are close to another site.
James Kehoe, global chief financial officer at Boots parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance, told analysts yesterday: “We will continue to optimise our locations and opening hours, and expect to close an additional 300 locations in the UK and 150 locations in the US.”
The pharmacy chain employs over 52,000 team members and it is expected that these closures will not lead to any redundancies.
It comes after Boots closed a string of stores this spring, before shutting another at the beginning of the month.
The stores that have closed in 2023 are as follows.
- Salford Shopping Centre, Greater Manchester
- Church Street, Malvern
- The Port Arcades Shopping Centre, Ellesmere
- King William Street, London
Boots said in all cases there is an alternative store less than three miles away.
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Previously, Boots closed more than 200 stores over an 18-month period starting in 2019.
Many of the closures were because they were loss-making and two-thirds of them were within walking distance of each other, the chain said.
In 2020, Boots announced 48 opticians were closing with the loss of 4,000 jobs.
