Task Using a SWOT analysis, critically examine the internal and external environment of Boots, a health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain in the UK, as described in the case study below. Finish your analysis by providing recommendations to Boots about the important issues it needs to address and the actions it needs to take for business success.

Internal and external environment of Boots

PART 1 Read and analyze the case study that follows, which you have already seen in TMA 01. Take into account your tutor’s feedback on TMA 01 when writing this analysis. Task Using a SWOT analysis, critically examine the internal and external environment of Boots, a health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain in the UK, as described in the case study below. Finish your analysis by providing recommendations to Boots about the important issues it needs to address and the actions it needs to take for business success. This part of the TMA is intended to assess your ability to analyze a business case study by applying the SWOT framework.

Internal and external environment of Boots

You are also required to demonstrate how you have applied your tutor’s feedback on TMA 01 to this second assignment. Part 1 of your assignment should be 900 words in length and you should keep to within 10 per cent above or below this limit. Any figures, diagrams and tables should be included in the body of the main text and will form part of the total word count. However, the reference list does not contribute to the word limit. Case study: Boots Will Boots fall prey to private equity – again?

Internal and external environment of Boots

Billionaire Italian owners hoist the ‘for sale’ sign over 172-year-old High St stalwart Ever since the Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina took over Boots, there have been worries about the future of the well-loved chain, which comes second only to Marks & Spencer in the affections of Britain’s shoppers. The 80-year-old tycoon has hired Goldman Sachs to look at a sale of the High Street chemist almost 15 years after he took the business off the stock market in a £10 billion deal. At that time, it was the UK’s biggest ever debt-driven buyout, backed by US private equity firm KKR.

Boots’ beauty and pharmacy stores have since become part of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA).

Internal and external environment of Boots

A £30 billion international business, following a £16 billion deal in 2014. Although WBA is listed on the US stock market, it is still controlled with an iron grip by Pessina and his partner of 36 years, Ornella Barra, 68. A sale of Boots – founded by John Boot in 1849, but transformed by his son, Jesse, the 1st Baron Trent – is not yet a certainty. Show description Pushing Boots: Jesse Boot, who transformed the firm The chain could be floated on the UK stock market as an independent business or conceivably kept on as part of WBA.

But if it does go up for auction, private equity firms would certainly be among the bidders, and indeed will be circling now to see if they can swoop on Boots at a bargain price.

Internal and external environment of Boots

A private equity bid would ramp up the controversy over pandemic predators to a whole new level. The buyout barons have already pounced on household names including supermarket chain Morrisons and mutual savings company LV in a spree the like of which has not been seen since 2007, when Boots first fell to private equity. That rampage was brought to an abrupt halt by the financial crisis, but has fired up again during Covid-19. A private equity deal would certainly have been anathema to the devout Methodist family who founded Boots in their home town of Nottingham. Analysts have suggested Boots could be valued at as much as £10 billion.

Internal and external environment of Boots

Potential buyers, however, may want to pitch in significantly below that level. An attempted takeover is likely to prove even more acrimonious than the rows to date, not only because of its status as a High Street stalwart but also because of its extensive network of pharmacies and their importance to the nation’s health. This has been underlined in the pandemic when Boots has also administered more than 3.7m Covid tests. By the 1920s the Boots name was everywhere. The physical stores have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Show descriptionBy the 1920s the Boots name was everywhere.

Internal and external environment of Boots

The physical stores have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Investment manager Justin Urquhart Stewart said: ‘Boots has lost its style and presence on the High Street and could end up yet another British brand consigned to history. ‘But the Government might want to look at economic security in the pandemic, as its branches could be a key element in testing and vaccinations for new Covid variants. ‘Rather than private equity I would like to see a UK stock market float, where customers could buy shares.’ Under its Old Etonian boss Sebastian James, the company has been trying to make the main three strands of the business – beauty, pharmacy and wellbeing – work better together. https://youtu.be/B6KCK7xoVBQ

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