Alliance Boots to cut 900 non-store jobs

Alliance Boots is to shed 900 non-store-based jobs in the UK over the next three years. The chemist and pharmaceuticals wholesaler, which owns Boots, said the cuts would slash its annual operating costs by about £56m by 2013-14.

Alliance Boots will lose 750 staff in support functions, largely IT, in Nottingham and Feltham, west London. A further 150 will go at the Boots contract manufacturing site in Nottingham, where it also has its UK headquarters. Alliance Boots said the cuts – equal to 10 per cent of its non-store UK workforce – would deliver efficiencies, including a "leaner" central support outfit, supported by new systems.

Paul Maloney, of the GMB union, said the cuts were "really bad news", adding: "We will be seeking urgent talks with the company to find out what is behind this decision."