The Canadian branch of the billionaire Weston family agreed to buy health retailer Boots for US$8.9 billion including debt, the latest change of hands for the pharmacy chain and a U.K. return for the former Selfridges owner. The family’s Wittington Investments vehicle will acquire Boots from Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family. The private equity firm took control of Boots through its US$10 billion acquisition of parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. in 2025 and split the group into standalone businesses. Wittington will buy Boots’ retail operations in the U.K. and Ireland as well as certain other businesses, according to a statement Wednesday. Boots has been a fixture of UK shopping streets for generations, combining a large pharmacy operation with well-known health and beauty brands across more than 1,800 stores. Revenue rose 3.2 per cent to £7.5 billion (US$9.9 billion) in its latest full-year results ended August 2025, and there was speculation around an initial public offering under new chief executive Alex Baldock. But in recent years, Boots has changed hands repeatedly in a series of wider corporate transactions. Formerly an independent listed company, Boots merged in 2006 with Stefano Pessina’s Alliance UniChem to create Alliance Boots. That was taken private in a leveraged buyout by KKR and Pessina a year later. Walgreens completed its acquisition in 2014, creating Walgreens Boots Alliance. Pessina and his wife Ornella Barra, who was the longtime CEO of Boots before stepping down this year, own close to 44 per cent of the company. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. , a Toronto-based company with interests in the property, insurance and consumer retail sectors, is partnering on the deal with Wittington, which will have operational control of Boots, including key assets like its top-selling No7 beauty brand. The Weston family has a long history in Canadian retail, pharmacy and beauty and through Loblaws Cos. Ltd. it owns a large network of grocery chains, pharmacies, private-label brands, and financial services. This includes Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada’s largest pharmacy, health and beauty business. Store upgrades Wittington said it plans to invest in Boots by upgrading stores, improving customers’ online experience and expanding the range of healthcare services. Wittington chairman Galen Weston will hold the same role at Boots, a brand he called “one of Britain’s most enduring businesses.” The swoop on Boots comes as a slew of U.K. retailers warn about inflation, which is weighing on consumer behavior and exacerbating pressure from the recent increases to the minimum wage and business rates. The challenges are evident at Primark, owned by the U.K. branch of the Weston family via its Associated British Foods Plc. Sales are falling at the budget fashion chain, which faces fierce competition from the likes of Shein Group Ltd. Despite the shared name and lineage, the two branches of the Weston family are run through separate holding companies and have distinct business interests. The Canadian Westons, via Wittington, previously owned Selfridges & Co. for almost two decades, investing in its flagship Oxford Street store and integrating the business into a retail group that included Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland and De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands. It sold the group to a Thai-Austrian joint venture for about £4 billion in 2021. The Boots acquisition includes its retail operations in the U.K. and Ireland, Boots Opticians and the No7 Beauty Company, as well as its Thailand and franchised businesses, according to the statement. Sycamore Partners, in partnership with the Pessina family, will retain ownership of Boots’ other interests in Farmacias Benavides and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland. Bloomberg.com
Canada’s Weston family, owner of Loblaws, to buy U.K. pharmacy chain Boots for US$8.9 billion
