UK pharmacy health and beauty retailer Boots has announced it is to cut approximately 700 jobs, a decision the company said it is not taking lightly.
The Walgreens Boots Alliance company released a statement today stating that the cuts would be made as part of a wider plan to “address the rapidly changing needs” of its customers and to continue the transformation of its businesses.
The roles being axed will involve non-store based employees; Boots said it aimed to making the cuts via a combination of natural attrition, redeployment, retraining and redundancy. A formal consultation with affected colleagues is said to begin in due course.
Simon Roberts, President of Boots, said: “Boots has an incredible heritage of delivering care and support to communities across the UK for over 165 years. While we have continued to deliver a solid performance in recent years, despite challenging market conditions, we cannot be complacent and must be stronger and more agile going forward, to meet the fast changing expectations of our customers.
“Together with my leadership team, I believe this plan will make Boots even better for our customers and drive sustainable future growth. We also remain fully committed to our presence in Nottingham, which has been the home of Boots since the very beginning.
“We have not taken these decisions lightly, and understand the impact that today’s announcement may have on our colleagues. We are fully committed to doing everything we can to support all our people as we transform Boots and strive to be even better for our customers and patients.”
The job cuts form part of a Walgreens Boots Alliance cost restructuring programme, set out in the company’s Q2 financial results announcement. Other areas of focus for the company include: reinventing customer offer, focused customer engagement, investing in technology and simplifying support operations.
