Boots to create 150 jobs in five new stores this year

CHEMIST CHAIN Boots plans to create more than 150 jobs in Ireland later this year when it opens five new stores, it said yesterday.

The company, which currently employs 1,800 people in the Republic, said the extra retail and pharmacy roles would be filled ahead of the store openings, which will take place over the summer period.

The new stores, which will vary in size between small community pharmacies and larger units in out-of-town shopping centres, will be located in Donegal, Mayo, Limerick and the greater Dublin area, according to Boots Ireland director Rhys Iley.

The opening of the five stores will reignite the Irish expansion plans of the British pharmacy group Alliance Boots, after a combination of the property crash and a collapse in consumer spending derailed its plans to almost double its presence in the Republic.

In 2007, Boots indicated that it planned to open a further 35-40 stores within a few years. However, since then it has opened just 13 stores.

“Those numbers are still our plan, but we are a year or two years behind where we wanted to be because of the recession,” Mr Iley said.

Sales of discretionary items such as cosmetics have been hit hard over the last 18 months, as consumers became more cautious spenders.

“We’re not immune from the recession at all. This is not about Boots’ sales bucking the trend. This is Boots being prudent and saying we’re planning ahead,” Mr Iley told The Irish Times.

The company said it planned to open more outlets in the future. All of the units will contain pharmacies, in line with the store model that Boots favours overseas.

“We are optimistic for the medium term,” Mr Iley said, adding that the company had “confidence in the future of retailing in Ireland”.

In 2009, Boots opened five new stores, which also created 150 jobs. This brought the total of Boots outlets in the Republic to 55.

The Boots director said that an industrial dispute between staff and management has been settled.

In November 2009, Boots staff voted to go on strike after the company sought to alter their terms and conditions, including increasing the amount of weekend working and lowering the pay rates for new employees.

The strike was averted when employees accepted management’s proposals.

The new Boots outlets will create both retail and pharmacy jobs. A typical Boots store has a pharmacy team of about 10 staff, according to Mr Iley.

Boots, which first entered the Irish market in 1996, is now owned by the New York-based private equity group KKR.