Weston family agrees $8.9bn deal to acquire Boots, subject to approval

Wittington Investments, the Canadian Weston family's holding company, announced on 7 October 2026 that it had agreed to acquire Boots and related businesses for $8.9bn, including assumed debt. The agreement covers a major UK and Irish pharmacy and beauty retailer, but ownership will change only if the deal closes after regulatory approval.

The sellers are The Boots Group, majority owned by Sycamore Partners in partnership with Stefano Pessina and his family. The Guardian puts the price at about £6.74bn and reports that Boots has 1,800 UK stores and employs 50,000 people. The scale of that business makes the proposed change of owner significant for its staff, customers and patients.

Which Boots businesses are included in the Weston agreement

According to Wittington's announcement, the agreement includes Boots' retail operations in the UK and Ireland, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Company, and Boots' Thailand and franchised businesses. The stated $8.9bn consideration includes debt the buyer will assume; it is therefore not described solely as a cash payment to the sellers.

Sycamore and the Pessina family will keep The Boots Group's interests in Farmacias Benavides, a pharmacy chain in Mexico, and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland, a German distributor. Those businesses are outside the announced acquisition, an important distinction from a sale of every interest held by the current owners.

When could Boots change ownership?

The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. The parties expect it to close in the first quarter of 2027. That timetable is an expectation, not confirmation that the approvals have been granted or that the sale is complete. The announcement does not identify the regulators involved or spell out the approvals they must give.

If the deal closes, Galen Weston, Wittington's chair, is expected to become Boots' chair. Weston called Boots one of Britain's most enduring businesses and said Wittington saw an opportunity for further investment and a renewed operating focus. These are the incoming owner's stated aims, rather than changes already made in Boots stores.

Wittington says its plans include upgrading stores, improving Boots' online experience and supporting an expansion of healthcare services. It has not set out a timetable or scale for those investments in the announcement. Nor does the announcement establish what the agreement will mean for store numbers, jobs or the services available to customers after closing.

Why the Boots sale follows years of earlier attempts

The agreement follows an earlier attempt to sell the business. In June 2022, Walgreens Boots Alliance ended a review of Boots and No7 and decided to keep them. Its statement said instability in financial markets had affected financing and prevented prospective buyers from making an offer that reflected what it considered the businesses' value. That decision is the clearest earlier contrast with the definitive agreement announced now.

The Guardian reports that a plan to float Boots at a valuation of about £7bn was dropped in 2024. It also reports that the Weston family's Canadian branch sold Selfridges in 2022. The proposed purchase would bring that branch back into ownership of a large British high-street business, although the Boots transaction still has to complete.

Boots chief executive Alex Baldock said its colleagues serve millions of customers and patients and that he looked forward to building the business for them and their communities. Pessina, who said he and his wife Ornella had been associated with Boots for 20 years, welcomed passing it to owners he described as strong and reliable. Those statements express the parties' views of the deal; its immediate confirmed effect is an agreement to sell, with completion still pending.