A major company affiliated with Boots has announced plans to shut down its Nottingham location, a decision anticipated to affect approximately 150 workers. Alliance Healthcare, which distributes medical supplies to over 17,000 pharmacies, physicians, hospitals, and health facilities throughout the United Kingdom, will close its warehouse situated on Boots’ campus between Nottingham and Beeston during the summer months. The company was divested by Walgreens Boots Alliance, Boots’ former parent corporation, in 2021, though it maintained operations at the D80 building on the health and beauty group’s Thane Road site. The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers has now confirmed that Alliance Healthcare will proceed with the previously disclosed closure of its Nottingham distribution center. The approved plan to relocate operations to a new logistics facility in Birmingham, initially announced the previous March, also includes shutting down a location in Hinckley, Leicestershire, and reducing staff at the South Normanton site in Derbyshire. According to Usdaw national officer Darren Matthews, the company is moving forward with closures at the Hinckley and Nottingham facilities, while the South Normanton location will experience job reductions as work shifts to the new Birmingham site later this year. The union continues to represent employees during consultations and has secured the most favorable severance package and assistance possible for departing workers. Usdaw had previously noted that the “devastating” decision placed a total of 490 positions at risk, with roughly 150 of those in Nottingham. Alliance Healthcare declined to provide comment, stating it would be inappropriate to do so while employee consultations remain ongoing. A company representative had previously stated that the decision was not made lightly and that the organization greatly values the contributions of affected team members while remaining dedicated to supporting individuals impacted by these changes. Alliance Healthcare ranks among Europe’s largest pharmaceutical wholesalers and distributors, originally established as Unichem in 1938. The company merged with Alliance Santé in 1997 to form Alliance UniChem, which then combined with Boots in 2006 before being separated and sold in 2021. The business is currently owned by Cencora, an American pharmaceutical wholesale company that acquired it for $6.5 billion in June 2021. Alliance Healthcare’s departure marks another recent departure from Boots’ extensive Nottinghamshire campus. BCM, a cosmetics and pharmaceutical manufacturer previously sold by Walgreens Boots Alliance in 2017, vacated the historic D10 building on the Thane Road complex in 2024, resulting in hundreds of job losses and ending all Boots manufacturing operations in Nottinghamshire since the company’s founding by John Boot in 1849.
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