The Boots Co has dropped its plans to try to develop a Boots the Chemists-style pharmacy chain in Europe.
The company announced on August 17 that it was to transfer its 17 stores in the Netherlands to the Etos drugstore chain. The transfer included property leases, stock, assets and staff. Boots was also to pay Etos Dfl3.5m (£1m). The deal would entail a £14m write off in the Boots accounts.
A Boots spokesman (Mr Francis Thomas) told The Journal that Boots had moved into the Netherlands when it changed its laws to make it the only European Community country, apart from Britain, where corporate pharmacy was legal. Boots had hoped that the change would have prompted Belgium, France and Germany, followed by all other EC countries, to do the same. This had not happened.
He conceded that Boots would have needed about 50 stores in the Netherlands to cover its overheads. It had been unable to find 50 suitable sites, due to the facts that the Netherlands was a mature market and that there was little building happening. Also, the Dutch people had not been willing to change their health and beauty shopping habits to match what Boots offered.
Boots offered a revolution in that all health and beauty goods were offered under one roof, while the Dutch were used to taking their prescriptions to the apotek, buying their cosmetics from department stores and going to druggists for their general health needs, Mr Thomas said.
Boots has also granted Etos exclusive rights to sell its cosmetic brands, including No7 and No 17, in Holland.

Boot's all-under-one-roof format fails to appeal to European consumers