Boots to create 800 jobs in 30 new Irish stores

Boots has announced plans to open at least 30 new stores in Ireland in the next five years, bringing the total number of Boots stores in the Republic to 70 by the year 2011.

The news was announced by director of Boots Ireland Rhys Iley as he confirmed that Boots forty-first store in Ireland will open in St Laurence town centre, Drogheda in early October this year.

"Opening new stores in Ireland continues to be an important part of our growth strategy and we have an aggressive store-opening programme in place over the next five years. This represents a further investment by Boots of €50m in Ireland and will lead to the creation of more than 800 new jobs," he said.

Boots is also upgrading almost half of its existing Irish stores with a €2.4m investment in 17 of its outlets. The revamp will include the introduction of consulting rooms and in some stores a completely new pharmacy will be installed.

As part of its store expansion plan, Boots is considering appropriate sites throughout the country, in particular in the greater Dublin area. Another store opening is planned before the end of the year, and there are also plans to relocate the Boots Aston Quay store to a larger Dublin city centre location shortly.

Rhys Iley added that Boots would also be introducing the first "midnight opening" pharmacy to Ireland in the autumn.

The most recent accounts filed for Boots Retail Ireland Ltd record a turnover of €193m and pre-tax profits of €16m for the year ended March 31, 2005.