UK Volume 22

uk.superbrands.com Superbrands UK Vol. 22 Boots has been at the heart of the community for over 170 years, with the ambition to provide affordable healthcare for all – a vision that’s still alive today. Boots is now the UK’s leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer with around 52,000 colleagues and 2,336 stores Market Boots UK is part of Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) – a global leader in retail pharmacy, impacting millions of lives every day through dispensing medicines and providing accessible, high-quality care. Boots UK is committed to providing exceptional customer and patient care and being the first choice for pharmacy, beauty, healthcare and wellness, alongside offering its innovative portfolio of product brands, including No7 – the UK’s No. 1 skincare brand – Soap & Glory, Liz Earle, Sleek MakeUP, Botanics and YourGoodSkin. Product Remaining one of the most trusted brands in the UK, Boots has the widest range of products and exclusive brands in the health and beauty sector. The Boots Advantage Card is seen as one of the most generous loyalty schemes and allows cardholders to treat themselves more so than from other schemes (Source: Kantar). Boots offers more than 100 health and pharmacy services, including a mix of private services and services delivered on behalf of the NHS. In 2021 Boots launched Online Doctor services for 45 healthcare conditions to provide quick access to advice and prescription-only medicine without having to see a GP. Achievements 2021 saw Boots enjoy another award-winning year. At the Fabulous Beauty Awards, Boots was voted Best Retailer, as well as winning the Best Supplement category. Boots Ingredients was runner-up in the Best High Street Skincare Brand category. Boots was also voted The Sunday Times Style Beauty Awards winner for Best Beauty Retailer in 2021, for the fourth year in a row. During the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020, Boots played a vital role in supporting the nation’s health, designing, building and operating the first drive- through Covid-19 testing centre. Created at speed, it was opened in Nottingham in March 2020. By the end of the year more than 2.1 million tests had been carried out with the support of more than 500 Boots volunteers. During the pandemic Boots also provided products like soaps and moisturisers to NHS frontline staff and supported charities such as The Hygiene Bank and domestic abuse charity, Hestia. Boots has been proud to support the NHS to administer Covid-19 vaccinations at specially created vaccination hubs in its stores, administering more than 600,000 Covid-19 vaccinations to date. Recent Developments Since the start of lockdown, Boots has launched over 65 new beauty brands, including Drunk Elephant, Uoma Beauty, Anastasia Beverly Hills and Fenty Skin. There are many more exciting brands set to join the line-up, including the likes of Kylie Cosmetics. Boots has opened a number of new stores in 2021 and continues to invest in its new-look, reinvented beauty halls, which it has launched in a revised, smaller format at 30 more stores across the country. By the end of summer 2021, the nation’s favourite beauty hall had been introduced into more than 90 locations nationwide, increasing accessibility to more people in their local stores. As of 2021, over 90% of the UK population is within a 10-minute drive of their local Boots store and with Click and Collect available at more than 2,300 stores, Boots is making these beauty brands more accessible than ever. Promotion Boots’ first ever advertising campaign took place in 1877, offering traditional remedies at reduced prices, under the slogan ‘health for a shilling’. Ever since these innovative first steps, Boots has continued to understand what is of importance to its customers.