Boots jobs at risk as IT service roles moved overseas

Boots is set to axe around 60 jobs from its IT service desk as part of an ongoing restructuring plan to consolidate “service desk activities” to “help reduce decision making time and complexity, as well as improve efficiency”.

The health and beauty retailer has renewed a five-year contract with strategic partner NCR and roles currently performed by staff in the UK will be transferred overseas.

Boots said it anticipates 60 people will be at risk of redundancy and a consultation process with those affected will “begin immediately”.

As part of the restructuring, one service desk and a new service operations team will be created providing 18 new full-time roles at Boots IT, which those affected by the cuts can apply for.

The restructuring programme will form part of the Walgreens Boots Alliance’s $1.5bn (£800m) cost transformation programme announced last December, which includes the closure of around 200 underperforming UK stores in a bid to stave off falling profits and sales.

The health and beauty group slashed its earnings guidance alongside its second-quarter results in May, which it called the “most difficult quarter” the business had seen since its creation in 2014.

The group’s UK division also recorded a 20% decline in full-year pre-tax profits to £398m in the year to August 31, 2018, earlier this year.