Paving the way: Seb James, the boss of Boots
Seb James, the boss of Boots, wants to help the nation’s women rediscover the glamour factor after a year in lockdown Lycra, with their faces half-hidden behind masks. He believes demand for make-up will soar as women return to work and start to socialise again.
There are early signs he might be right. The No7 Beauty company has reported a 61 per cent increase in the volume of lipstick sales in the second quarter of this year. Bold, showstopping colours are in favour, apparently. Overall, sales of beauty products have gone up 85 per cent in the third quarter of this year as life gradually returns to normal and women reach for their make-up bags again.
Boots is introducing a blizzard of new make-up brands, including cult labels such as Drunk Elephant and Fenty, along with Korean skincare Dr Jart+ and Kylie Skin.
‘We are seeing a huge surge in beauty,’ says James. whole gamut from expensive designer slap to budget brands.
‘That’s how women shop for cosmetics now – they are happy with a £2 mascara and a really luxurious ‘During the pandemic, people were really focused on skincare. Now we are seeing cosmetics and fragrance take off as people are going out again.’
Boots, he points out, stocks the lipstick. This is why we are being crowned Queen of Beauty in the media – not me personally, but the stores,’ he smiles. As he acknowledges, the 55- year-old retailer does not seem the most likely candidate for the nation’s king of cosmetics.
But when he arrived in 2018, having previously run Dixons Carphone, with the task of revitalising one of the nation’s most-loved retailers, he soon became expertly versed in the intricacies of beauty brands.
‘When I came in we were miles behind. Just over lockdown we have launched 65 new brands, which is quite a thing to have done. Now, we have done lots of smartening up the shops and we have a lot more to do.’
What male grooming products does he like? ‘All of them, I need all the help I can get,’ he says. It’s heartening to hear Britons are grooming and preening again as the world opens up. High streets have been hit hard by the pandemic, which has brought store closures and thousands of job cuts.
When I came in we were miles behind. Just over lockdown we have launched 65 new brands, which is quite a thing to have done
Boots – which was founded in Nottingham in 1849 – is no exception. The chain made a £258 million loss in the year to the end of August 2020, with revenues down 10.8p per cent to just under £6 billion. It received £36 million in furlough cash and business rates relief that reduced its bill by £55 million. A round 6,500 jobs have been lost, in a mix of redundancies, voluntary exits and natural attrition.
The pingdemic, where people are forced to isolate, has added to James’s problems, as so many of the 52,000 staff have had to stay at home. Absence rates in his 2,330 stores increased by around 50 per cent. In up to 20 per cent of shops, more than four in ten staff are off and in some cases as many as 70 per cent are absent.
James has called for the rules to be changed so those who have received two doses of vaccine and test negative can carry on working. But Boots’ woes are not entirely pandemic-related: profits had been falling even before Covid. The UK chain is part of a $40bn international pharmacy group, Walgreens Boots Alliance, which is listed on Wall Street.
Boots was founded in Nottingham in 1849. Pictured, an early Boots store
The empire is the creation of Stefano Pessina, an Italian billionaire, who took it over in a private equity deal in 2006. James’s strategy has been to make the three main strands of the business – pharmacy and medicines, vitamins and well-being and beauty – work better together. As well as expanding the cosmetics and skincare ranges, he has been pouring effort into digital healthcare.
‘I hope we haven’t wasted the time in lockdown when the world has been slowing down,’ he says. ‘We think the relationship between people and their health has changed pretty fundamentally as a result of Covid.
‘People are more interested in preventative care, it is at the top of their minds. And they are now very comfortable with the idea of testing, so we could test for a whole range of conditions. The NHS is under significant pressure in all kinds of areas. There is a huge backlog and we think we can help.
‘We want to start helping with blood tests and so on. People have begun to interact digitally with healthcare professionals in a way that absolutely wasn’t happening to any significant extent before. That is a big change and opens up the ability for Boots and others to provide primary care services and advice.’
Glamour factor: Boots introduced 65 new beauty brands in lockdown
Boots has a long heritage of providing over-the-counter remedies dating back more than a century and now wants to move into the digital age. To that end, it is launching health hubs, giving health advice in stores and online.
The 100th service has just been launched on the hub, the Leva Clinic which helps patients manage pain. And the Boots online doctor can deal with 45 conditions, giving quick access to advice and prescriptions. Additional services include Covid testing, mole scanning and help to stop smoking.
‘In many cases during the pandemic, the only way you could see a GP was digitally. Many people have got used to the idea,’ says James. H E believes Pharmacists could relieve some of the pressure on GPs.
He says: ‘We would like a totally symbiotic healthcare service that works end to end.’ What about the high street after the pandemic? In the past, he has called for reform of business rates, saying that the ‘increasingly fragile ecosystem’ of high streets and town centres was under threat from online operators who paid much less. Covid has accelerated the shift to online shopping and heaped ever more pain on traditional retailers.
‘If the Government wants vibrant high streets it will have to do something about the cost of retail property,’ he says. ‘At the same time, we have seen an economy that has moved massively online. ‘It is appropriate that some of the cost of that should be borne by online distribution, including our own.’