Weston family buys Boots, ending 18-month private equity stint

Boots, the High Street pharmacy and retail chain, has been sold in an $8.9bn (£6.7bn) deal to Canada's billionaire Weston family. Wittington Investments, the holding company, confirmed on Wednesday that it had agreed to buy the 177-year-old retailer from the US private equity firm Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family.

Boots began as a simple apothecary in Nottingham but has evolved into a stalwart of the High Street, expanding its business to sell a vast range of health and beauty products, meal deals and travel accessories. The chain has performed well in recent years despite challenges from rivals and changing shopping habits. Its stores have seen lower footfall as people switched to working from home rather than visiting town and city centre offices every weekday. It has closed hundreds of branches across the UK in recent years, leaving it with about 1,800 stores and 51,000 employees, but remains a familiar British brand. In its most recent annual results, Boots generated £7.5bn in sales, a 3.2% increase on 2024.

Catherine Shuttleworth, chief executive of the retail consultancy Savvy Marketing, said shoppers were unlikely to see much change in stores over the coming months, but added that what they can "expect over time is an improved shopping experience as the new owners invest in the business". She said health and beauty was a "massive area for growth", and that fresh investment from its new ownership would help. The past two decades have seen several changes of ownership. Sycamore owned the retailer for only 18 months, and Shuttleworth said the chopping and changing of owners had been "an unhelpful distraction".

The company was established by John Boot, who opened the first herbalist store in Nottingham in 1849, offering an affordable alternative to traditional medicines. It has since expanded over the decades into selling various products, though health has remained a key part of its business. As well as vaccines, it offers eye and hearing tests, providing much-needed health care support in everyday moments as well as at times of national crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic. It launched its loyalty scheme, the Advantage Card, in 1997, which became hugely popular and a move repeated by various retailers since.

Galen Weston, chairman of Wittington, will become chairman of Boots. He signalled that the new owners had fresh plans for the chain, including shop upgrades and an expansion of healthcare services. "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," he said.

The Weston family will buy Boots' retail operations in the UK and Ireland, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Company and its Thailand and franchised businesses. The deal is set to be completed in early 2027. The family owns the Canadian grocery chain Loblaws and the pharmacy business Shoppers Drug Mart, and previously owned the London department store Selfridges from 2003 to 2021, before selling it for $4bn. The separate UK branch of the Weston family is the majority owner of Associated British Foods, the parent firm of Primark. The Westons were ranked fifth on this year's Sunday Times Rich List with a combined fortune of almost £19bn.

Wittington will have operational control over Boots, having secured ownership in partnership with Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Toronto-based holding company. Sycamore Partners, in partnership with Stefano Pessina and his family, will retain ownership of The Boots Group's Farmacias Benavides in Mexico and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland in Germany.