Healthcare
First
We have continued to work on the property front as well. As we have said before, increasing our edge-of-town presence is important and in the first six months we added 7 new stores.
At the same time, we are reviewing the space we have in some of our larger stores. This is a long-term process. Where property solutions present themselves, we will take them. This is about making the stores more efficient and driving up the sales and profits per sq ft. For example, in Brent Cross, we vacated the second floor after discussions with the landlord. The result was that we removed over £300,000 from our annual property costs and now, two years on, take more sales from the one floor than we took from the two storeys with sales intensity increasing by over 50 per cent.
Finally, we know we have work to do to bring some of our smaller stores up to scratch. Many of these stores have not been invested in for some time. These smaller stores and community pharmacies are the heart of this business and we must invest in them to give the service that our customers expect. We will do this over time as part of our ongoing programme to build a better Boots.
