Alliance Boots says it will focus on omnichannel as it looks to adapt to changing customer behaviour – and expectations.
The company, which owns multichannel pharmacy-to-health-and-beauty chain Boots , says it will continue to develop new products and services that set it apart from competitors while giving shoppers what they want.
Alliance Boots said in full-year results that it was “at the point in the cycle where we are reinventing our business models, in order to deliver sustained profit growth.
“In retail, this translates into accelerating our rapidly evolving health and beauty omnichannel offering in an integrated way, with even more differentiated products and services tailored to meet rapidly evolving customer behaviours and expectations, be it in terms of choice, concenience or service,” said the statement.
That, it said, meant developing or sourcing new unique product brands and creating new services that would be delivered through new technology.
On the wholesale side of its business, the statement said, it would find new ways to work with global manufacturers and its independent pharmacy customers “who themselves are having to adapt their own business models in an increasingly omnichannel marketplace.”
The update came as Boots unveiled revenue of £23.4bn in the year to March 31, up by 4.3% on the previous year. Earnings rose by 0.2% to £1.5bn.
Other highlights included its January 2014 £56m acquisition of a 12% stake in China’s Nanjing Pharmaceutical Company, a pharmaceutical wholesaler. The company is also buying Farmacias Ahumada, a pharmacy chain with businesses in Mexico and Chile as it looks to strengthen its global position in Latin America.
“Since Alliance Boots was formed eight years ago, we have made huge progress developing our businesses across the globe, while at the same time creating substantial value for first our public and then our private shareholders,” said Stefano Pessina, executive chairman of Alliance Boots.
