Alliance Boots plans expansion as profit tops £1bn

Alliance Boots has mapped out plans for further expansion after reporting profit topped £1bn last year.

Boots
Boots

The company, which runs 2,500 Boots retail stores and 670 opticians in the UK, reported trading profit reached £1.07bn, up 12.7%, in the financial year ended 31 March.

The company becomes one of an elite band of UK retailers to report full-year profit in excess of £1bn behind Tesco and Marks & Spencer.

Trading profit was boosted by the rollout of its “your local” Boots pharmacy chain and the introduction of the No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum range, the company says.

Stefano Pessina, executive chairman of Alliance Boots, says it will look to “accelerate” its business in the UK and elsewhere by “establishing strategic partnerships” with others.

Last week, Boots signed a deal with Procter & Gamble to distribute its Boots Laboratory Skincare range in Italy.

The company was taken private by Pessina and a private equity firm in 2007 after a £11.1bn takeover.

It appointed former HBOS chief executive Andy Hornby last June.

Revenue was up 9.6% to £22.5bn, the company says, while pre-tax profit increased to £475m from £13m a year earlier.

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