Boots UK enjoyed a strong autumn trading period including an “exceptional” Black Friday promotion, the multiple announced last week as its US parent revealed spiralling losses. 

The three months to November 30 saw Boots achieve 8.1 per cent growth in retail sales compared to the 2023 autumn quarter, with digital sales up 23 per cent and an “exceptional Black Friday period” delivering sales 20 per cent higher year-on-year. 

Meanwhile, pharmacy sales rose by 10.9 per cent, driven by factors like flu and Covid vaccinations and 155,000 Pharmacy First consultations over the three-month period. 

First-quarter sales for Walgreens Boots Alliance’s international segment, of which Boots UK is a principal component, reached $6.4bn, up 10.2 per cent from the same period in 2023. 

Boots UK managing director Anthony Hemmerdinger said: “This is another strong set of financial results, with retail and pharmacy sales seeing significant uplift alongside market share gains and increased customer satisfaction scores. 

“These figures demonstrate that our ongoing transformation – from improvements to the in-store and digital customer experience to a focus on offering the very best product and service range across all price points – is working.”

Mr Hemmerdinger said chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget will present “heightened cost pressures” when it comes into effect on April 1 but said Boots has “positive momentum behind us and a clear plan in place” to navigate these challenges. 

Meanwhile, in a conference call with investors to discuss WBA’s difficult quarter, chief executive Tim Wentworth said the company had made an operating loss of $245m in the first quarter of its financial year, several multiples of the $39m it lost a year previously. 

Walgreens stores, over a thousand of which are currently being targeted for closure by the business, saw a 10.4 per cent rise in pharmacy sales partly offset by a 6.2 per cent drop in retail sales due to fewer “discretionary” purchases and a “weaker cough cold flu seaon”. 

The Walgreens closure programme is proceeding at pace and will ramp up significantly in the months to come, said Mr Wentworth who commented that a dedicated team “has already sequenced the next approximately 450 stores closures” and that the process will be carried out “through the end of 2025”. 

The conference call barely touched on Boots UK’s performance, with WBA chief executive Tim Wentworth using his closing comments to praise the British chain for a “great Christmas”. 

December saw reports that private equity firm Sycamore Partners’ $10bn bid for WBA could lead to the UK multiple being sold off.