BOOTS has issued a major update on its store closure plans after previously announcing that 300 shops would shut for good.
The health and beauty chain announced last year that it would close hundreds of branches as part of a plan to reduce its store count.
In a fresh update, Boots UK told The Sun that over 290 stores have now shut as part of these plans.
This means that fewer than 10 stores are still scheduled to close before the health and beauty chain completes its extensive closure programme.
Although Boots did not release a list of the remaining stores scheduled for closure, they are all expected to close by the end of October.
Most of the closures have taken place as the leases of the affected stores have expired.
The latest update comes after new data obtained by Healthwatch found that 436 pharmacies closed permanently in England between January 1 and December 31, 2023.
Boots revealed a jump in sales for the latest quarter, as its parent firm cut profit forecasts and announced US store closures.
The UK arm revealed higher sales across its pharmacy and retail businesses during the quarter ending May.
However, total sales growth slowed to 1.6% as store closures impacted it over the past year.
Over the past year, Boots has shut around 290 shops to take its store estate from around 2,200 down to 1,900 sites.
Boots says that most closures have happened in areas with another store nearby.
In June, parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) said it plans to shut more of its underperforming US shops following a strategic review.
WBA also cuts its earning per share guidance for the financial year to August, amid a “challenging US retail environment”.
Overall group sales were 2.6% higher at 36.4 billion dollars (£28.8 billion) for the quarter to May, as its US business saw stronger pharmacy sales offset a retail slump.
In the UK, comparable retail sales grew by 6% year-on-year, with in-store sales higher due to stronger footfall in its travel, beauty, and flagship shops.
It highlighted that airport stores performed particularly well following recent refurbishments.
Meanwhile, digital sales grew by 13.8% for the period, as it benefited from investment in its Boots app, which provides shoppers with personal offers.
Boots also reported stronger sales growth in its pharmacy arm, which reported a 5.8% rise amid increased take up for its healthcare services.
MORE ON BOOTS CLOSURES
Since 2019, Boots has embarked on a major company restructure dubbed the Boots Transformation Plan.
At the time of its launch in 2019, the brand earmarked 200 stores for closure.
The closures took place over an eighteen-month period.
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.
Last July, Boots announced further plans to shut 300 more stores.
The move is aimed to reduce the chain’s store portfolio from around 2,200 to just 1,900.
So far, 253 of these store closures have taken place and a further 47 shops will close later this year.
The pharmacy chain employs over 52,000 team members, and it has said that these closures will not lead to any redundancies.
Boots’ parent, WBA’s quarterly financial report, said earlier in June that it “plans to reduce its presence by up to 650 Boots stores”.
Since the launch of the Boots Transformation Plan in 2019, 581 Boots stores have closed for good.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom on the high street.
Several major retailers have plans to increase their store counts.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103%.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
PHARMACY WOES
Pharmacy closures have become a “widespread challenge” across England.
Healthwatch England said that closures can have “huge impacts” on patients – particularly those in rural communities and older people.
New data obtained by Healthwatch found that 436 pharmacies closed permanently in England between January 1 and December 31, 2023 – the equivalent of eight pharmacies shutting their doors permanently every week.
Healthwatch also sounded the alarm over temporary closures of pharmacies – which can last hours or days.
Some 13,863 temporary closures were reported between January 1 and December 31 last year, according to a new Healthwatch briefing document.
It warned that temporary and permanent pharmacy closures are “undermining people’s access to care”.
Analysis of the data suggests that temporary closures were more common in rural areas compared with urban areas.
North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board appeared to be worst affected by temporary closures, it found.
Paul Rees, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “It’s clear that rising levels of closures are risking leaving some areas of the country as pharmacy deserts, with people having to travel much further to get access to vital services.
“Community pharmacies act as the front door to the NHS.
“If people lose access to them, it will force more patients into the 8 o’clock scramble at their GP surgery, putting pressure on the rest of our NHS system.
“1.6 million people a day visit their pharmacy but they are closing at a record rate, and millions of people are seeing the effect of that in their communities.”
