BOOTS has issued another update on its store closure plans after previously announcing that 300 chemists would shut for good.
The health and beauty chain announced last year that it would close hundreds of branches.
It comes just a week after the chain confirmed the progress of these plans.
But in a fresh update, Boots told The Sun that 257 stores have now shut.
This means that the remaining 43 shops will soon close under the plans.
And Boots has now confirmed that all remaining stores marked for closure will have shut for good by the beginning of October.
While it wouldn’t disclose a full list of store closures coming ahead of this date, it said that most will take place when an affected store’s lease expires.
It also said that most stores marked for closure are located close to other Boots branches.
Over the past year, Boots has shut around 257 shops to take its store estate from around 2,200 down to 1,900 sites.
Last month, parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) said it plans to shut more of its underperforming US shops following a strategic review.
WBA also cuts its earning per share guidance for the financial year to August, amid a “challenging US retail environment”.
Overall group sales were 2.6% higher at 36.4 billion dollars (£28.8 billion) for the quarter to May, as its US business saw stronger pharmacy sales offset a retail slump.
In the UK, comparable retail sales grew by 6% year-on-year, with in-store sales higher on the back of stronger footfall in its travel, beauty and flagship shops.
It highlighted that airport stores performed particularly well following recent refurbishments.
Meanwhile, digital sales grew by 13.8% for the period, as it benefited from investment into its Boots app, providing shoppers with personal offers.
Boots also reported stronger sales growth in its pharmacy arm, which reported a 5.8% rise amid increased take up for its healthcare services.
Travel and vaccination services saw high demand ahead of the summer holiday, the company said.
BOOTS has never given a full list of the 300 stores closing.
Here’s what we know so far about some of the locations where branches that have gone for good.
Since 2019, Boots has embarked on a major company restructure dubbed the Boots Transformation Plan.
At the time of its launch in 2019, the brand earmarked 200 stores for closure.
The closures took place over an eighteen-month period.
Many of the closures were because they were loss-making and two-thirds of them were within walking distance of each other, the chain said.
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre's decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
In 2020, Boots announced 48 opticians were closing with the loss of 4,000 jobs.
Last July, Boots announced further plans to shut 300 more stores.
The move is aimed to reduce the chain’s store portfolio from around 2,200 to just 1,900.
So far, 253 of these store closures have taken place and a further 47 shops will close later this year.
The pharmacy chain employs over 52,000 team members, and it has said that these closures will not lead to any redundancies.
Boots’ parent, WBA’s quarterly financial report, said last month that it “plans to reduce its presence by up to 650 Boots stores”.
Since the launch of the Boots Transformation Plan in 2019, 581 Boots stores have closed for good.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom on the high street.
Several major retailers have plans to increase their store counts.
IT'S not all bad news on the high street as several retailers are bucking the trend and opening shops.
