Poor profits at Boots

Profits at Boots the Chemist dropped further than the market had anticipated last year. For the year ending 31 March pre-tax profits were down 3.1% to £349m from £360m, though like for like revenue was up 0.6% and total revenue was up 1.9% to £5.01bn.

The merger with Alliance UniChem, which has now been given the go ahead by the Competition Appeals Tribunal, is likely to be completed by the end of July and it is hoped that this will improve operating margins.

The Boots Advantage Card had a good year. A total of two million new users signed up, a record for the store, and card transactions were up 8%. The store also signed up 500,000 customers to its new Health Club initiative in the first three weeks after launch.