Canada's Weston family has agreed to buy Boots in an 8.9bn US dollar deal (£6.7bn), taking control of the 177-year-old British pharmacy and retail chain from US private equity firm Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family.
Wittington Investments, the Westons' holding company, will acquire Boots' UK and Ireland retail operations, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Company, and its Thailand and franchised businesses. The deal is expected to close in early 2027. Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Toronto-based firm, will be a partnership owner.
Boots operates approximately 1,800 stores across the UK and employs 51,000 people. The chain has faced headwinds from reduced city centre footfall as remote work increased, prompting hundreds of store closures in recent years. It remains a prominent High Street presence, selling health and beauty products, meal deals and travel accessories alongside pharmacy services including vaccines, eye tests and hearing tests.
Galen Weston Jr., who will become Boots chairman, said the family sees "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."
Catherine Shuttleworth, chief executive of retail consultancy Savvy Marketing, said shoppers should expect an improved shopping experience over time as new owners invest in the business. She flagged health and beauty as "a massive area for growth" and described the frequent ownership changes of the past two decades as "an unhelpful distraction."
Boots was founded in 1849 as a herbalist store in Nottingham offering affordable alternatives to traditional medicines. It launched its Advantage Card loyalty scheme in 1997, which became widely copied by other retailers.
Sycamore Partners owned Boots for only 18 months. The Weston family will retain ownership of Farmacias Benavides in Mexico and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland in Germany through Sycamore and the Pessina family.
The Westons control Canadian grocer Loblaws and pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart. The UK branch of the Weston family owns a majority stake in Associated British Foods, parent of Primark. The family previously owned London department store Selfridges from 2003 to 2021, selling it for $4bn. The Westons ranked fifth on the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List with combined wealth of nearly £19bn.