Weston family’s Wittington agrees to buy British pharmacy chain Boots for US$8.9 billion, with Toronto’s Fairfax as its partner

Wittington Investments, the private holding company of Canada’s Weston family, has signed a definitive agreement to buy Boots, one of Britain’s best-known pharmacy and health and beauty chains, for a total of US$8.9 billion including assumed debt, the company announced on Wednesday. The seller is The Boots Group, which is majority owned by New York private equity firm Sycamore Partners in partnership with Stefano Pessina and his family. The Canadian Press, in a report published by CBC News, put the price at almost $12.7 billion Cdn, while the BBC put it at £6.7 billion.

Under the agreement, Wittington will acquire Boots’ retail operations in the U.K. and Ireland, Boots Opticians, the No7 Beauty Company, and Boots’ Thailand and franchised businesses. Sycamore and the Pessina family will keep The Boots Group’s other interests, Farmacias Benavides and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland, which the BBC identified as businesses in Mexico and Germany. The transaction is subject to certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, Wittington said.

Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings is partnering with Wittington on the purchase, with Wittington having operational control once the deal closes. In its own release, Fairfax said it has signed an equity commitment letter under which it, or an affiliate, will provide up to about US$2.3 billion toward the purchase price, and that it expects to own 50 per cent of the equity of Boots after closing. “We are very pleased to partner with Galen Weston and the Wittington team to acquire Boots, a leading historic brand in the UK and Ireland,” said Prem Watsa, Fairfax’s chairman and chief executive officer.

Galen Weston, the chairman of Wittington, will become chairman of Boots when the deal closes. “Boots is one of Britain’s most enduring businesses, with a rich heritage, a trusted name and a vital role in everyday life across the UK and Ireland,” he said in the Wittington release. “We see a meaningful opportunity to make a great business even better through stable long-term ownership, further capital investment, and the renewed operating focus required to serve customers with excellence for generations to come.” Wittington said it plans to keep investing in Boots, including upgrading stores, optimizing the online experience and supporting the expansion of healthcare services. Weston declined an interview request from The Canadian Press, CBC reported.

Boots began when John Boot opened a herbalist store in Nottingham in 1849, according to the BBC, which said the chain has closed hundreds of branches in recent years and now has about 1,800 stores and 51,000 employees. In its most recent annual results, Boots generated £7.5 billion in sales, up 3.2 per cent from 2024, the BBC reported. It said Sycamore had owned the retailer for only 18 months. “One year ago, we re-established Boots as a standalone company, allowing its management team and more than 50,000 colleagues to focus solely on their business and customers,” Stefan Kaluzny, managing director of Sycamore Partners, said in the release.

Retail expert Catherine Shuttleworth, chief executive of Savvy Marketing, told the BBC that shoppers were unlikely to see much change to stores in the coming months, but that what they can “expect over time is an improved shopping experience as the new owners invest in the business.” She called health and beauty a “massive area for growth” and said the repeated changes of ownership had been “an unhelpful distraction.”

In Canada, the Westons are best known for building Loblaw Companies and George Weston, and for owning the luxury department store Holt Renfrew, CBC reported. Wittington is the controlling shareholder of George Weston and, through it, of Loblaw and Choice Properties, according to the release, which says Loblaw has more than 2,800 locations and owns Shoppers Drug Mart. Wittington previously owned the British department store chain Selfridges from 2003 to 2021. CBC said it is unclear whether the deal will bring Boots, which operated for a time in Canada, back to the country, where it could compete with Shoppers and its roughly 1,350 stores.

When a Weston bid for Boots was rumoured in late September, RBC Capital Markets analyst Irene Nattel said the deal made some sense, according to The Canadian Press. “We believe there is substantial organizational knowledge and understanding of retail pharmacy within the Weston family of businesses and investments, knowledge that would prove extremely useful should a transaction come to fruition,” she wrote in a Sept. 30 note to investors. She did not expect a deal completed through Wittington to have much impact on Loblaw or George Weston, CBC reported.

Sources: Wittington Investments news release via Cision (Oct. 7, 2026); Fairfax Financial Holdings news release via GlobeNewswire (Oct. 7, 2026); The Canadian Press via CBC News (Oct. 7, 2026); BBC News (Oct. 7, 2026).