Boots announces the closure of the Lister Gate store.
A statement from Boots on the store reads: “We are closing on Wednesday, 31 March,
“Your nearest Boots store is at the Victoria Centre.
“Any uncollected prescriptions or Boots.com orders can be collected from the Victoria Centre shop after March 31.”
Boots announced in Jul 2020 that it would be cutting 4,000 jobs – 7 per cent of its workforce – as part of the action to mitigate the “significant impact” of Covid-19.
The business Walgreen Alliance Boots said in a statement and financial update on 9 July:
‘The company is moving swiftly to address the impact of COVID-19 on the Boots business by accelerating the Boots Transformation Plan.
‘Key elements of the proposed plan include a reorganization of the Boots store employee structure, the closure of 48 Boots Opticians stores and an additional 20 per cent headcount reduction in the UK support office.
‘Subject to labour consultation, these reorganization actions will impact more than 4,000 positions (7 per cent of the workforce). The Boots Transformation Plan also includes increased investment and focus on the Boots omnichannel strategy and is designed to drive future growth in the company’s UK market.
‘The adverse impact of COVID-19 on sales in the quarter was approximately $700 million to $750 million, with the majority of the impact related to the Retail Pharmacy International division. This reflected a dramatic reduction in footfall in Boots UK stores – down 85 percent in April – as consumers were advised to leave home only for food and medicine. While most Boots stores remained open throughout the UK lockdown to provide communities with pharmacy and essential healthcare, our largest premium beauty and fragrance counters were effectively closed. More than 100 stores, mainly in high street, station and airport locations, were temporarily closed as were nearly all of the 600 Boots Opticians stores.
