Alliance Boots was a multinational pharmacy-led health and beauty group with corporate headquarters in Bern, Switzerland and operational headquarters in Nottingham and Weybridge, United Kingdom.
The company had a presence in over 27 countries including associates and joint ventures and in 2013/14, reported revenue in excess of £23.4 billion. It had two core business activities – pharmacy-led health and beauty retailing, and pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution – and also increasingly developed and internationalised its product brands.
The company was formed in 2006 by the merger of the British high street pharmacist Boots Group and the pan-European wholesale and retail pharmacy group Alliance UniChem and was listed on the London Stock Exchange as Alliance Boots plc. In 2007 it was bought out in a private equity transaction by AB Acquisitions Limited, led by Stefano Pessina and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). Alliance Boots GmbH was established in Switzerland during 2008 and is a direct subsidiary of AB Acquisitions Holdings Limited, which held all shares in the company. In August 2012, the US company Walgreens purchased 45% of shares as part of a plan to merge the two businesses, with an option to acquire the remaining shares within three years. It exercised that option in August 2014, and following shareholder and regulatory approvals, the two businesses merged on 31 December 2014 to form Walgreens Boots Alliance.The group's operations were mainly carried out under the Boots and Alliance Healthcare brands. Boots UK is the UK's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer. Alliance Boots is also the largest pharmaceutical wholesaler in the UK through its Alliance Healthcare (Distribution) Ltd business. The company employs over 120,000 staff and operates more than 4,600 retail stores, of which just over 4,450 have pharmacies. Alliance Boots pharmaceutical wholesale division serves over 180,000 pharmacies, doctors, hospitals and health centres from over 370 distribution centres in 20 countries. Both companies became subsidiaries of Walgreens Boots Alliance on completion of the merger.