Boots’ American parent company WBA has made a loss of $265 million in the first fiscal quarter of 2025 ending November 30 2024, it today (January 10) revealed.
The results reflect a staggering 296% increase in losses from the year-ago quarter, when losses stood at $67m.
WBA said that the new results were “primarily driven by higher operating loss”.
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Its chief executive Tim Wentworth added that the company’s “first quarter results reflect our disciplined execution against our 2025 priorities”, including “stabilising the retail pharmacy by optimising our footprint”.
In October, WBA announced its “footprint optimisation program”, which laid out plans to close some 1,200 US pharmacies over the next three years.
“Sales increased”
The multinational reported that its first quarter “sales increased 7.5% from the year-ago quarter to $39.5 billion…reflecting sales growth across all business segments”.
WBA added that this revenue increase was also seen in Boots UK, where “comparable pharmacy sales increased 10.9% compared with the year-ago quarter”.
“Boots.com sales grew 30%...aided by strong Black Friday performance and representing 22% of Boots total retail sales,” it said.
Read more: UPDATED: Boots parent company announces 1,200 US store closures
Last month, WBA remained taciturn amid fresh rumours that it is in talks to “sell itself” to a private equity firm in the new year.
At the time, the Wall Street Journal reported that the healthcare giant was looking to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners “in a deal that would take the pharmacy chain off the public market”.
Boots, WBA and Sycamore all told C+D that they would make no comment on the reports.
Read more: Boots reports modest growth as parent company cuts losses amid sale rumours
Meanwhile, the multinational’s June filing with the US securities and exchange commission (SEC) revealed that Boots had shut 581 out of as many as 650 stores tipped for closure as part of its “transformational cost management program (TCMP)”.
The latest SEC filing, published in October, said that 624 Boots stores had been closed as of August 31 2024.
Boots declined to provide more up to date figures on its progress on pharmacy closures.
