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Alliance Boots Limited is a British based Pharmaceuticals company, operating as a high street retailer, Pharmacist and pharmaceuticals wholesaler. Alliance Boots is the dominant pharmacy chain in Britain with a 17% market share BBC News 3rd October 2005 . Retail operations are carried out under the Boots The Chemist and Alliance Pharmacies brandsNote 1. Alliance Boots is also the largest pharmaceuticals wholesaler in the UK through their UniChem subsidiary with a 40% market share. As the third largest pharmacy chain in Europe, Alliance Boots employs around 100,000 staff and operates around 3,000 retail stores, around 2,700 of these have pharmacies. Around 380 depots support this retail network. Alliance Boots is headquartered in Nottingham , England . In terms of retail space, Alliance Boots ranks as one of the largest high street retailers in the UK. On the 25th April 2007 , Alliance Boots was approached with a buy-out offer by New York City -based Private Equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts , for an estimated £ 11 Billion . Alliance Boots has become the first company on the FTSE 100 share index to be bought-out by a private equity firm. On July 25, it was reported that banks that are part of the debt syndication have had trouble obtaining buyers for the debt. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE As of July 2007 the board of directors are: Alliance Boots Board of Directors
MERGER HISTORY See Also: Alliance UniChem Alliance Boots was formed following the merger of a British company, Boots Group PLC, and a pan-European company, '''Alliance UniChem Plc'''. Whilst the creation of Alliance Boots was billed as a "Merger" it was technically an aquistion of Alliance Unichem PLC by the Boots Group PLC, which then renamed itself "Alliance Boots". Alliance UniChem was formed at the end of 1997, when Alliance Santé S.A. merged with the UK company UniChem PLC to form Alliance UniChem Plc, and between 1998 and 2006, Alliance UniChem expanded into additional markets throughout Europe and Russia with a widespread program of takeovers, resulting in the company expanding and entering the FTSE 100 share index in 2002. Alliance Santé stems from Alleanza Salute Italia, which was founded in 1977 by present Alliance Boots Executive Deputy Chairman Stefano Pessina. Through his investment vehicle Alliance Santé Participations S.A, Pessina now owns just under 15% of Alliance Boots plc (some 145,300,001 shares) together with 299,108 shares Pessina holds personally. Ornella Barra, Stefano Pessina's partner and director of Alliance Santé Participations S.A owns 559,021 shares. Taken together, the couple own 15.106% of Alliance Boots plc. Boots The Chemists was founded in in Boots stores. BBC News 22nd October 2004. In October of 2005 it was announced, after a short period of speculation amongst financial analysts, that Boots would merge with Alliance UniChem in a deal valuing both companies equally and said to be worth around £7 billion. BBC News The merger process completed without any major intervention from the Office Of Fair Trading on Monday July 31 2006 , although 96 shops were sold to comply with a condition laid down by the OFT. Technically, the merger was in fact a takeover by Boots, with Boots Group PLC - the holding company of The Boots Company PLC - acquiring the entire share capital of Alliance UniChem and issuing 1.332 Boots Group PLC shares for every 1 Alliance UniChem share held. Alliance Boots IR Upon completion of the process, Boots Group PLC renamed itself to Alliance Boots plc. The benefit of this process allowed The Boots Company PLC and Alliance UniChem Plc to remain intact under one parent company, and eliminating time consuming and expensive legal work which would have been necessary to merge the two companies together into one new company. Following the merger process, former Boots Group shareholders hold 50.2% of the new company, with former Alliance UniChem shareholders holding 49.8%. Despite the Office of Fair Trading not imposing any restrictive conditions on the deal, the merger only received final approval in February 2006 after the Competition Appeal Tribunal rejected rival firm Celesio's challenge to the deal. Celesio own the Lloydspharmacy Chain. OPERATIONS Alliance Boots operations are split into two areas, Retail and Wholesale. Retail Operations Boots See Also: Boots The Chemists Boots The Chemists forms the backbone of Alliance Boots retail operations, with all retail outlets planned to carry the Boots brand in future. Digital Look Accessed 2nd November 2006 Boots has a history stretching back over 150 years and is a familiar sight on Britain's high streets. Boots outlets are typically larger than those of Alliance Pharmacy, often occupying prominent high street / city centre locations. Most branches have a pharmacy (only 300 of 3000 stores do not) and focus on healthcare, personal care and Cosmetic products, with most stores selling over the counter Medicine s, many stores also feature traditional Photo Processing and/or a Kodak picture kiosk where users of digital cameras and camera phones can create professional quality prints. Larger stores usually offer a range of electrical equipment such as Hairdryer s, Curlers and foot massagers, whilst selected stores often offer a range of Sandwiches , baguettes, wraps, salads and beverages. Over the last 3 years, Boots has opened 48 larger out of town stores Boots The Chemists Website to compete with out of town supermarkets and electrical outlets, over the past few years, Boots have suffered intensive competition from the major supermarket chains, especially Tesco and ASDA stores featuring a pharmacy and photo processing area, and electrical retailers such as Argos and Dixons selling photographic and beauty electrical items. Boots Healthcare - larger stores typically offer a variety of healthcare services in addition to dispensing prescriptions, such as Flu Vaccination , Cholesterol screening, weight loss advice, hair retention treatment, smoking cessation advice and products, and Chlamydia testing & treatment (private service). Boots is also a big player in the provision of services to Care Homes across the UK. Optician services are also offered in many larger stores, with Boots providing eye tests along with the sale of Spectacles and Contact Lenses . Boots supplied 800,000 pairs of spectacles in 2005/2006 Boots Opticians website information Boots has a well developed internet site www.boots.com which allows Online Shopping in the United States in North America , Finland , Iceland , Norway , The Netherlands , Switzerland , Romania in Europe , Russia , Taiwan and Hong Kong in Asia and New Zealand in Australasia . The United Arab Emirates , Kuwait , Thailand and Indonesia will be served by Boots online operation sometime in the future. Boots online country selection Advantage Card - billed as the most generous customer Loyalty Card in Britain, Boots Advantage card has 15,000,000 regular users Alliance Boots corporate information and users earn 4 points (worth 1p each, so 4p per £1) for every £1 spent. (In Ireland, users earn 4¢ for every €1 spent). Alliance Pharmacy Alliance Pharmacies are typically smaller shops BBC News 3rd October 2005 focusing mainly on filling prescriptions, selling healthcare products and providing medical advice. Alliance Pharmacies tend to be in less prominent locations, closer to GP surgeries or located in housing estates rather than town centres, in locations more suited to the needs of those needing prescriptions and over the counter medicines. Alliance Pharmacy stores are to be re-branded to 'Your Local Boots Pharmacy', although no time frame has yet been given. =Moss Pharmacies E.Moss Limited was acquired by UniChem in 1991 and through 2005 was re-branded as Alliance Pharmacy. Any remaining Moss Pharmacy stores will be re-branded as Boots along with the Alliance Pharmacy stores. Internationally Alliance Boots operates a further 400 pharmacies in Norway, The Netherlands, Thailand, Republic of Ireland, Italy and Switzerland (through an associate) and has a presence in various other countries such as Russia, Romania, Iceland, New Zealand, Canada and the USA through implants in other major retail partners. Wholesale Operations Boots Manufacturing Boots Manufacturing is the manufacturing subsidiary of the Boots Group and manufactures a range of own brand and third party cosmetic products, including the No 7, Kangol , Toni & Guy , FCUK , Soltan and Botanics ranges of cosmetics. Some are sold through Boots outlets whilst others are sold through third party stores such as French Connection . Boots Manufacturing has plants in the UK, Germany , France and Poland . Boots Manufacturing also produces Boots, No 7 and Soltan products for sale through outlets in North America. UniChem UniChem is the backbone of Alliance Boots wholesale and distribution service, with twice daily deliveries to around 5,700 pharmacy shops in the UK alone. Internationally, Alliance Boots distributes drugs and cosmetics to around 125,000 outlets and operates from 380 delivery depots. In addition to supplying Alliance Pharmacies, the Alliance UniChem distribution subsidiaries also deliver to NHS central warehouses and hospitals in the UK, along with private Hospitals , GP surgeries, local health centres and private pharmacies throughout Europe, Asia and Australasia. Almus Almus is a brand of generic prescription drugs sold throughout the Alliance UniChem sphere of operations. Almus is an umbrella brand for the wide range of lower cost generic medicines, which by the end of 2006 will total 200 different drugs and doses. Alliance Boots has placed considerable emphasis on the design of the packaging in an attempt to reduce the number errors by the dispensing chemist and by the patient relating to incorrect dosage which can result in either a dangerous Accidental Overdose or an equally dangerous under dose. Almus have won numerous awards for the design of their packaging and documentation. Almus Media Centre SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES Alliance Boots plc is the direct parent company of The Boots Company PLC and Alliance UniChem Plc, with The Boots Company PLC and Alliance UniChem Plc remaining parent companies of their respective subsidiaries. There has been no change in the structure of either company during the merger process. FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE Boots Group PLC Alliance Boots Results Archive Alliance UniChem Plc SEE ALSO NOTES Note AAlliance Pharmacy stores will be re-branded to Boots stores. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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