Profile

Boots UK Limited is a company with a long and distinguished history, starting as a herbalist store setup by John Boot in 1849. The business grew from a single store to a national chain under the management of John’s son Jesse, with a brief period of ownership held by the United Drug Company of America, between 1920 and 1933.

UK ownership was restored in 1933 to British financiers including Jesse’s son John. From 1933 to the present day, Boots expanded its business outside the UK, developed its own-brand products such as Soltan and introduced new retail concepts such as self-service stores and merged with Alliance Unichem to form Alliance Boots in 2006.

The Alliance Boots Group was acquired by AB Acquisitions Limited, a privately-held company and was delisted as a public company in 2007.