Boots is being sold to Wittington Investments, the holding company of the Canadian branch of the billionaire Weston family, in partnership with Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings, for $8.9 billion (£6.7 billion), the BBC reported on October 7. Wittington will take operational control and the deal is set to complete in early 2027, ending Sycamore Partners’ 18-month ownership after its $23.7 billion takeover of Walgreens Boots Alliance.
The sale covers Boots’ retail operations in the UK and Ireland, Boots Opticians, the No7 Beauty Company, and its Thailand and franchised businesses. Sycamore and the Pessina family will retain Farmacias Benavides in Mexico and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland in Germany. The 177-year-old chain, founded in Nottingham in 1849, has about 1,800 UK stores and 51,000 employees after closing hundreds of branches, and posted £7.5 billion in sales last year.
Galen Weston, Wittington’s chairman who will chair Boots, said the family sees a meaningful opportunity to make the business better through stable long-term ownership. The deal returns the Westons to the British high street after their 2021 sale of Selfridges for $4 billion; the family also owns Canada’s Loblaw grocer and Shoppers Drug Mart, and ranks fifth on the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated £19 billion fortune. Retail expert Catherine Shuttleworth said shoppers are unlikely to see much change soon, but health and beauty is a massive area for growth for the chain.