CELEBRATION


MARKING A MAJOR ANNIVERSARY!


AS BOOTS THE CHEMIST MARKS A MAJOR LANDMARK IN ITS HISTORY, PIF LOOKS AT THE COMPANY’S ORIGINS AND JOINS IN THE LOCAL CELEBRATIONS...


little Jesse Boot could scarcely have predicted that he would one day establish what is probably the UK’s largest and best-known pharmacy chain.


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This year, however, sees the province mark its own special Boots celebration, with the chain celebrating 50 years of helping the province’s customers feel good through its 84 stores and 1,600 colleagues working in the heart of NI communities.


It was in 1966, the year that David Jones became Bowie, Cassius Clay defeated Henry Cooper, Seamus Heaney published his first poetry collection ‘Death of a Naturalist’ and mini-skirts were the height of fashion, that Boots opened its first store in Northern Ireland at Belfast’s Cornmarket.


In 1998, Boots acquired Connors adding 25 pharmacies to the portfolio, with a further 45 stores added seven years later through


hen he was


collecting herbs in a wheelbarrow more than 150 years ago,


the purchase of the former Bairds Chemists.


It had been more than 100 years before the company’s arrival in Belfast that Jesse Boot’s family had owned a shop in Nottingham from which the herbs, which he collected in his wheelbarrow, were turned into home-made remedies by his father, John, and sold.


Jesse’s family weren’t wealthy, however, and, unfortunately, at only ten years of age, Jesse’s father died. At that time, doctors were beyond the means of most people, and ordinary people couldn’t afford medicines or prescriptions. The loss of his father left Jesse with an overwhelming determination to bring affordable healthcare to the masses.


By the 1870s, people were becoming aware that there were other remedies out there besides herbal ones – and Jesse wanted to stock them. Unlike other chemists, however, he opted to get his medicines directly from the manufacturers and so was able to sell them at a reasonable price. In 1884, Jesse transformed his business into a modern pharmacy and cut the price of prescriptions to half of what other


people were charging.


He opened branches in Lincoln and Sheffield – each one with a fully- trained pharmacist in store. It was the beginning of modern-day Boots. As Boots grew, however, so did its reputation. People knew that the products worked, but Jesse quickly realised that people wanted scientific proof, and so he set up his own lab in Nottingham in 1895 to test products.


During World War One, Boots’ growth accelerated. Until then, many pharmacy businesses had simply bought drugs like aspirin from Germany. Now that supply had suddenly dried up, they were faced with finding other sources.


Jesse rose to the challenge, setting up a fine chemical department in 1915, staffed by scientists, specifically to create Boots’ own products. This was the beginning of Boot’s R&D side, and throughout the twentieth century the company continued to manufacture pioneering drugs. The rest, as they say, is history, culminating in Boots’ development of anti-inflammatory drug Ibuprofen - one of the world’s leading drugs - in 1969. Today, Boots has 180 scientists working in labs on its Nottingham site to produce pioneering products.


The Belfast celebrations were held on 17 June in the capital’s iconic Europa Hotel and Simon Roberts, Executive Vice President of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. and President of Boots flew in specially to lead the celebrations.


‘We are very proud of the evolution of Boots in Northern Ireland from that single pharmacy in Cornmarket to having a major presence in towns and cities across the country,’ Mr Roberts told representatives from business organisations, the health sector, current and former colleagues as well as elected representatives, who had gathered at the Europa.


‘Delivering healthcare is at the heart of what we do and our team of over 210 PSNI registered pharmacists make us one of the largest employers of pharmacists. Supporting the local community is also very important to us and I would like to pay tribute to our teams who do much to support local organisations, charities and patient groups, and also their dedication and hard work to provide care for our customers and patients every day. For the last fifty years, Boots has played an integral role both in the health, beauty and wellbeing of local people and in our contribution to the local economy. We can now look forward to the next fifty years of care for our customers with confidence.’


Mr Roberts was joined at the celebratory event in the Europa Hotel by Marco Pagni, Executive Vice President, Global Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc; Anne Higgins, Head of Customer Experience for Northern Ireland at Boots UK and Marie Smith, Country Pharmacy Manager in Northern Ireland for Boots UK. •


PHARMACY IN FOCUS - 45


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