The first seven Boots stores to be closed in the multiple’s latest “store optimisation” programme have been revealed.

The company announced in late June that it planned to reduce its store count by 300 to around 1,900, with a focus on branches that are close to other Boots sites. It also said it does not envisage any redundancies arising from the closures and that staff will be redeployed.

Pharmacy Network News understands that over 85 per cent of the affected stores are within 5km of another Boots pharmacy.

This week, it emerged that the first stores to be shut are:

• Heathside Road, Woking (closing at the end of July)
• University of East Anglia campus (end of July)
• Hamlet Ct Rd, Westcliff-on-Sea (August 1)
• Upper Warrengate, Wakefield (October 7)
• Glastonbury (October 13)
• Guildford Road, Woking (End of October).

Branches in Salford, Malvern, Ellesmere and the City of London have already closed since the spring. The rest of the 300 closures – which were announced as the company posted healthy quarterly financial figures – will take place over the next year. Parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance is closing a further 150 stores in the US.

A spokesperson for the company said: “We can confirm that the stores listed are part of the Boots store consolidation programme previously announced. All team members from these stores will be offered alternative roles.”

Announcing the closures programme on a June 27 call with investors, WBA chief financial officer James Kehoe said: “Over the next year Boots will continue to consolidate a number of stores in close proximity to each other.

“Evolving the store estate in this way allows Boots to concentrate its team members where they are needed and focus investment more acutely in individual stores with the ambition of consistently delivering an excellent and reliable service in a fresh and up to date environment.”