Boots reveals Edinburgh makeover, WBA confirms commitment to chain

If the recent decision not to sell UK health & beauty giant Boots (for a second time in two years) wasn’t indication enough, US owner Walgreens this week reaffirmed its plans for the retailer, labelling the brand as “very important” to the business.

That came as it opened a revamped Edinburgh store.

Ornella Barra, the head of Walgreens’ international ops, told The Times: “Boots is in a very good position in the market, so at the moment, the best solution is for Boots to remain part of the group. Walgreens will continue to support Boots to remain number one in the UK market.”

Reacting to criticism that Walgreens has extracted more than £1.1 billion in dividends since buying Boots, but closed more than 560 stores in the past six years with many of those remaining starved of investment, Barra said it had sanctioned £527 million of investment in the retailer over the past three years.

Some of that financing has been spent on either a new beauty hall or healthcare department in 450 larger stores, out of a total of 1,900.

Anthony Hemmerdinger, the retail director at Boots UK, also told the newspaper: “We would accept that not all our stores are at the standard we want them to be, but we have an aspiration to have a great Boots store in every town and no stores that we are ashamed of.”

Barra also said Walgreens recently signed off on a further three-year Boots investment plan that will total hundreds of millions of pounds. It will include upgrading 70 stores this year, followed by 100 more next year.

Under outgoing UK managing director Seb James, who departs in November, Boots has broadened its beauty range to encompass more than 500 brands and now responds faster to trends, such as the current South Korean skincare product.

Boots is also opening more of its own beauty-only stores. The first, in Battersea Power Station mall opened last year, will be duplicated in major cities.

This includes its just-fully-refurbished store on Princes Street, Edinburgh, transformed and redesigned to feature the beauty hall concept with new and updated beauty counters.

It boasts 12 new premium beauty and haircare brands including Kylie Cosmetics, Sol de Janerio, Caudalie, Philip Kingsley and Fenty Beauty, as well as familiar favourites such as No7, Liz Earle, and Soap & Glory.