Boots Opticians has confirmed to Optician that a leaked list of practices affected by the company’s planned closures is accurate.
The list of 48 practices and their area codes appeared online this week, which the multiple confirmed as accurate following enquiry by Optician.
Earlier this month the multiple announced there would be closures and 4,000 job losses across the wider business because of severely impacted retail sales during lockdown.
A Boots UK spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that we have identified the stores that are proposed to close and have entered a consultation period. We recognise this is a difficult time for any colleagues that are impacted and are doing everything we can to support them throughout this process.
‘Alongside this, we will continue to prioritise providing our customers with the same great care and expertise that they expect from Boots Opticians. Over the next few weeks, we will be speaking to all of our customers individually if their store is affected about how we will support their transition to another Boots Opticians nearby.’
The proposed closures represent 8% of the Boots Opticians estate and would see patients transferred to other local Boots Opticians.
Boots Opticians added that it was doing all it could to support its impacted colleagues and would look to avoid as many redundancies as possible.
Boots Opticians practices set to close:- Ashford, Bath, Birmingham Longbridge, Blackburn, Bournemouth Castlepoint, Brierly Merry Hill, Bromley High Street, Catford, Chelmsford High Street, Chester, Colchester Culver Walk, Colliers Wood, Colwyn Bay, Croydon, Cwmbran, Egham, Finchley, Fort Dunlop, Golders Green, Hackney, Huddersfield, Hyde, Ipswich, Kingswood, Leeds White Rose, Leicester Halford Street, Lincoln, London Piccadilly, London Poultry, Margate, Nantwich, New Mersey Speke, Norwich Riverside, Palmers Green, Peterborough Long Causeway, Plymstock, Poole Branksome, Portslade, Putney High Street, Ramsgate, Reading, Rugeley, Slough, Southampton Shirley, Strand, Welwyn Garden City, Wilmslow, York Monks Cross.