Healthcare First
- Unifying feature, strong brand heritage
- 40% of sales, 50% of profits
- Strong long term growth opportunity
- Deregulation
- Increasing role for community pharmacy
- Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions
Notes
When I joined Boots I was clear that health was the key to improving the performance of Boots. It is central not just to what our customers think of the company, but also to its economics - producing 40 per cent of our sales and 50 per cent of our profits. It is the one thing that is present in every store, regardless of its size and location. So, improving our healthcare offer is the quickest way to ensure that all our customers see a real difference.
That is why we have focused so hard on it this year and will continue to do so.
The other reason is that we know that there is so much more to go for. We have a market share of 12 per cent in pharmacy - lower than in some of our other categories and with structural changes ahead that mean there is potential for further growth.
So, the advances we have made this year will be an important platform for us for the next year, when government changes to the pharmacy contract really kick in.
These are designed to transfer some aspects of healthcare from GPs to pharmacies. This will not only increase the number of pharmacies, but also enhance the role of community pharmacists.
We have already applied for 43 new pharmacy licences following deregulation.
Innovations such as the electronic transfer of prescriptions offer both a challenge and an opportunity. There is also the scope for new ways of working in health - offering a joined-up approach to lifestyle issues. Boots is the only pharmacy group to have achieved private medical agency status which allows us to treat conditions such as obesity with expert help as well as medication. And we are already working with primary care trusts, the local arms of the NHS, on smoking addiction. In our Birmingham store, for example, a successful smoking cessation programme delivered £90,000 in new revenue and helped 1,000 people give up smoking. That is what Boots is all about and nobody is better placed than us - with the trust our customers have in us - to make the most of this growing market.
LINK: Next "only at Boots"
