The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7417 p301
9 September 2006

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Alliance Boots moves forward with its expansion in Ireland

Alliance Boots is to open 30 new stores across the Irish Republic over the next five years, in a €50m expansion programme. By 2011, it aims to have more than 70 outlets in the country.

While the expansion will focus on the greater Dublin area, the company plans to have a presence in every city and major provincial town. The company will also spend €2.4m on upgrading half its existing stores, including the introduction of consulting rooms, and the provision of Dublin’s first midnight-opening pharmacy in the autumn.

For Boots, the booming Irish economy, with a growth rate three times the EU average and a young population, makes the Republic an attractive market, and it expects to increase turnover from €250m to €400m.

Showing the strength of the Irish operation, the company’s Grafton Street store, in central Dublin, produces the chain’s highest return per square metre, while an outlet in the Liffey Valley shopping centre takes in more money over Christmas than any of the company’s shops worldwide.