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The family behind Canada’s biggest pharmacy and grocery chains is growing its empire with the acquisition of U.K. drugstore Boots.
The Weston family holding company Wittington Investments said Wednesday that it will purchase Boots for $8.9 billion US (almost $12.7 billion Cdn), including debt, from private equity firm Sycamore Partners.
Along with Boots’s retail operations in the U.K. and Ireland, Wittington will acquire its operations in Thailand and franchised businesses, its optical division and No7 Beauty Company.
Toronto-based holding company Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. will partner with Wittington on the acquisition and after its closing, expected in the first quarter of 2027, Galen Weston will become Boots’s chairman.
Boots is among Britain’s most prominent retailers and has many similarities to Shoppers Drug Mart, the Canadian pharmacy giant with ties to the Westons.
The Westons are best known in Canada for building Loblaw Companies Ltd. and George Weston Ltd., and owning luxury department store Holt Renfrew.
They also have a stake in Associated British Foods, the parent company of value retailer Primark and the makers of Twinings tea, Mazola oils, Mazzetti vinegars, Ovaltine and Fleischmann’s yeast.
It’s unclear whether the acquisition will bring Boots, which was founded in 1849 and operated for a time in Canada, back to the country. If Boots made a Canadian return, it could become a competitor with Shoppers, which counts about 1,350 stores in Canada.
Boots has roughly 1,800 locations. When a Boots acquisition by the Westons was rumoured in late September, RBC Capital Markets analyst Irene Nattel said the deal made some sense.
“We believe there is substantial organizational knowledge and understanding of retail pharmacy within the Weston family of businesses and investments, knowledge that would prove extremely useful should a transaction come to fruition,” she wrote in a Sept. 30 note to investors.
She didn’t see a potential deal as having much impact on Loblaws or George Weston, if it was completed through the family’s private investment arm Wittington.
