Wittington Investments has agreed to buy Boots’ UK and Ireland retail and pharmacy operations for £6.7 billion ($8.9 billion, €7.95 billion), including assumed debt. It places a health and beauty retail estate of more than 1,800 UK stores under a new owner with operational control, a year after Sycamore took over and split the group into divisions.

Wittington Investments is the holding company of Canada’s Weston family, partnering with Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings on the deal, with Wittington holding operational control. The family sold Selfridges for £4 billion in 2022.

Boots was founded in Nottingham in 1849 and has more than 1,800 UK stores and 89 stores in Ireland, employing over 2,000 people there. The deal also covers Boots Opticians, the No7 Beauty Company and its Thailand and franchise businesses. Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family are the sellers.

Galen Weston, chairman of Wittington, who will become chairman of Boots, said: “We see a meaningful opportunity to make a great business even better through stable long-term ownership, further capital investment, and the renewed operating focus required to serve customers with excellence for generations to come.”

Wittington plans to upgrade stores, optimise the online experience and support an expansion of healthcare services. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.

The sellers keep other interests: Sycamore, with Stefano Pessina and his family, retains Farmacias Benavides and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland.

The acquisition follows a period of restructuring. The Pharmaceutical Journal reported that Boots has closed hundreds of stores in recent years, and that the Pharmacists’ Defence Association said pharmacists need sufficient staffing and good working environments to give their full contribution to healthcare.

For the sector, a buyer citing operating focus and capital investment after a split signals that store estate upgrades and pharmacy staffing are the operational tests for any new owner of a large retail network.

Source: Sky News / Irish Examiner / Irish News / Pharmaceutical Journal