<div id="readability-page-1"><div><div><p>When Currys announced that Alex Baldock, its chief executive, was stepping down earlier this year, the response from investors was immediate.</p><p>Shares in the electronics chain fell sharply – wiping almost 11pc off its valuation – as markets digested the departure of the man widely credited with engineering the company’s quietly successful turnaround.</p><p>Now Baldock appears poised for an even bigger challenge, tasked with reviving a 177-year-old brand that has seen better days. On Wednesday, it emerged that the outgoing Currys chief was being lined up to take the reins at Boots.</p><p>The company confirmed his appointment on Thursday, setting the stage for Baldock to try to convince investors that the British chemist could be worth as much as £7bn.</p><p>Baldock should be well-suited to the role. He has spent the past seven years proving that legacy retailers can still thrive if they modernise quickly enough.</p></div></div><div><div><p>At Currys, that meant slimming down the store estate, cutting costs, boosting online sales and emphasising its “omnichannel” offering of services, repairs, credit and subscriptions.</p><p>Adam Tomlinson, a retail analyst at Berenberg, says that when Baldock arrived at Currys in 2018, “the business was in a very tough place”.</p><p>“A major focus initially was restructuring the mobile division, which had become a significant drag on the wider group. He completely realigned it in terms of right-sizing both the store base and the cost base, and turned it from being a problem area into a positive contributor.”</p><p>Tomlinson says Baldock’s broader strategy has been to transform Currys from a “product-first retailer into an integrated services business”, encouraging customer loyalty through credit offers, delivery and installation, warranties, repairs and trade-ins.</p><p>“What is often overlooked is how much focus he placed on staff and colleagues,” he adds. “He has a mantra that customer experience can never exceed colleague experience.”</p><p>Baldock will now have to repeat that success at Boots – a brand which is desperately in need of a turnaround.</p><p>Since being folded into Walgreens Boots Alliance in 2014, Boots has endured closures, restructurings and repeated attempts to move away from its old-fashioned chemist image.</p><p>Its owners have repeatedly signalled that they would be keen to offload the British business. Walgreens launched a sale process for Boots in 2022.</p><p>However, it later scrapped the plans after failing to secure a deal at the valuation it wanted in the face of difficult market conditions and rising borrowing costs. Since then, efforts have been focused on honing the chain, including pushing through further store closures and cost reductions.</p><p>Speculation over a sell-off of the British arm was revived last year when private equity firm Sycamore Partners swooped to buy Walgreens Boots Alliance in a $10bn (£7.4bn) deal.</p><p>Shortly after the deal was completed, Sycamore split Walgreens into five standalone entities – one of which was Boots. It was seen as the first major step towards ultimately returning the British chemist to the UK stock market.</p><p>Baldock is believed by many to have been brought on to get Boots over the line for such a London listing – something insiders claim was “always the plan”. Its owners are looking for a valuation as high as £7bn. Still, some remain unconvinced that any listing would be imminent.</p></div></div><div><div><p>A senior retail industry source says his appointment is the same “as with any private equity-owned business”. “The job is to create as much value as possible for the owners,” the source says.</p><p>Given the current state of the London market, they say it is more likely that Baldock has simply been brought in to put Boots on a stronger footing. “I don’t think it’s right that he’s been brought in for an IPO.”</p><p>They say Boots’ health and beauty division is now “by far the most important part of the business”, reflecting the growing view inside retail that the future of Boots lies less in pharmacy and more in cosmetics, skincare and wellness.</p><p>That shift is already visible inside many of Boots’ larger stores, where beauty halls increasingly dominate the shop floor while traditional pharmacy space shrinks.</p><p>Analysts expect Baldock to continue pushing the business in that direction because beauty products offer significantly stronger margins than dispensing medicines or selling low-cost healthcare essentials.</p><p>Jonathan De Mello, of JDM Retail, says Boots is “looking at devoting more floor space to beauty rather than distress pharmaceutical purchasing. The margins on beauty products are significantly better”.</p><p>At the same time, Boots still faces the challenge of balancing investment in physical stores with the need to boost online sales.</p><p>For all the investment Boots has poured into flagship stores and digital infrastructure, analysts argue the business still lags behind rivals on both fronts.</p><p>“The Advantage Card is strong, but the website still needs work,” says De Mello.</p><p>Former executives claim there are also still swathes of its sprawling estate which are in urgent need of investment. Renovating all of these old stores would be painfully expensive.</p><p>Clive Black, another retail analyst, agrees the chain’s estate remains uneven despite years of investment.</p><p>“There are some flagship stores where they have clearly invested heavily in beauty, but there are also an awful lot of stores around the country that look pretty tired,” says Black.</p><p>If Baldock wants to take Boots public – be it later this year or further down the line – he will have to convince investors that Boots can be a growth business rather than simply a reliable cash generator.</p></div></div><div><div><p>Black says he suspects that “Boots may end up being seen more as an income story than a pure growth story”.</p><p>Baldock will also inherit questions over Boots’ international operations.</p><p>While the retailer’s presence outside the UK may have formed part of the attraction for him personally – having steered Currys for years in both the UK and overseas – analysts suggest some international businesses could ultimately be sold off as management focuses more tightly on the chain’s strongest markets.</p><p>De Mello says Boots’ operations in places such as Germany and Mexico are underperforming. He argues the business would be better concentrating on the UK and Ireland, which he describes as the company’s “engine room for growth”.</p><p>At Currys, Baldock managed to convince the markets that physical stores still had value in the Amazon era, provided they worked seamlessly alongside a strong online offer. Between 2024 and 2026, he oversaw a tripling in the retailer’s share price.</p><p>Just last week, Baldock told The Times that he loved his role at Currys. His next move would have to be “something properly exciting to take me away from Currys”. With Boots, it seems that Baldock has found that. Now, he said, marked the start of “an exciting new chapter for Boots”.</p></div></div></div>

<p>Currys' former CEO, Alex Baldock, has been appointed to lead Boots in a bid to revive the struggling brand, which is valued at £7bn. Baldock is recognized for transforming Currys by modernizing its operations and enhancing customer experience. Boots, under Walgreens Boots Alliance, has faced challenges including store closures and a shift in focus towards beauty products over traditional pharmacy services. Analysts suggest Baldock's role may primarily aim to strengthen Boots for a potential future IPO, although immediate listing prospects remain uncertain.</p>

Currys’ turnaround king tasked with reviving tired Boots for £7bn payday