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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Clare McCarthy

Boots to close 300 stores in major shake up but Irish branches 'not affected'

Boots has announced plans to shut 300 branches across the UK within a year - but the closures won't affect Boots stores in Ireland, we can confirm.

The pharmacy chain will close the stores over the next 12 months, reducing the number of Boots stores from around 2,200 to just 1,900, the Mirror reports.

However, Boots confirmed they don't have plans to shut any Irish stores in the shake up.

READ MORE: Major Irish shopping centres no longer accepting their own gift cards

A spokesperson for Boots Ireland told the Irish Mirror: “I can confirm for your background that stores in Ireland are not affected by this announcement.”

Boots employs over 52,000 people, but the closures are not expected to lead to redundancies and affected employees will be offered redeployment, a WBA spokeswoman confirmed to the Mirror.

Boots hasn't yet confirmed which stores in the UK are due to close.

Asked which locations are due to close, a spokesperson said: "I'm afraid we don't have the detail to share at the moment."

Boots said, following the planned closures, in most cases there will be an alternative store less than three miles away.

The closures come despite Boots posting strong quarterly results with retail sales up 13.4% and a ninth consecutive quarter of market share growth.

CFO James Kehoe specified the closure figure on a Q3 earnings analyst call on Tuesday afternoon.

In the quarterly results report, the company 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."

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