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Boots chief to depart after sale process stalls - Retail

Sebastian James leaves in November as Walgreens indicates IPO or disposal for UK retailer is off the table

The Chief executive of Boots is leaving his role after six years, as attempts by the owner of Walgreens Boots Alliance to list or sell the UK pharmacy chain have stalled.

Sebastian James, the boss of the UK retailer since 2018, has accepted a post in the pharmaceutical industry and will leave Boots in November.

It comes that Walgreens cut its profit outlook and indicated that an anticipated sale or listing of Boots was off the table.

Shares of the retail group plummeted by 25% on Thursday after Walgreens slashed its outlook for annual earnings per share by 12% and announced more store closures due to weaker consumer demand and lower reimbursements for pharmaceuticals.

Boots has shut 253 stores so far and they are due to close another 47 stores in the coming months.

Boots UK revealed higher sales across the pharmacy and retail businesses over the quarter to the end of May. However, total sales slowed to 1.6% as it was impacted by store closures over the past year.

“Flood of cheap Russian fertiliser risks Europe’s food security, industry says

Growing dependence on Russian fertilisers gives Moscow more leverage over European crop production.

A flood of cheap Russian fertiliser risks driving European producers out of business or out of the continent, posing a risk to long-term food security, the crop nutrient industry has warned.

The use of Russian natural gas in the EU has significantly slowed down after the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and European countries shifted to other sources of supply. But Russia continued to use its gas to produce, and export to Europe, cheap nitrogen-based fertiliser. European farmers are highly dependent on these fertilisers and as a result, the local fertiliser producers are struggling to compete.

Western sanctions carve out exemptions for Russian food and fertiliser exports to avoid hampering food security, but Cingr and Holsether argue that Moscow is using this loophole to fund its war chest.

A third of the EU imports of urea come from Russia. Poland’s imports of Russian urea climbed to almost $120mn in 2023, up from just $84mn in 2021.

Other big players are leaving the market. BASF, the world’s largest chemicals group, has shrunk its operations in Europe and rather focused on the US and China, where the costs are lower.

If everyone leaves Europe, it is more likely that they will depend on imports from other, mainly non-democratic countries, such as Russia and Belarus.

Definition Section

Conclusion

Therefore, while Boots is suffering to maintain its position in the retail and pharmaceutical industry because of higher costs and less consumer spending.

On the other hand, we can see that Russian cheap fertilisers are used to compete with European fertiliser producers. As a result, they are moving to the US and China to uphold their business.

Hope you enjoyed it! Lemah Islam