Canada’s billionaire Weston family. On October 7, 2026, the family’s holding company, Wittington Investments, agreed to buy Boots from US private equity firm Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family in a deal worth $8.9 billion (about £6.7 billion), in partnership with Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings. Galen Weston, Wittington’s chairman, will become chairman of Boots.
The purchase covers Boots’ retail operations in the UK and Ireland, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Company, and its Thailand and franchised businesses, and is expected to complete in early 2027. Sycamore and the Pessinas keep Farmacias Benavides in Mexico and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland in Germany. The Westons also own Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada.
Source: BBC News, “Boots sold in £7bn deal to Canadian billionaire family” (October 7, 2026)
Image: Boots at Castlepoint by Dorsetdude, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.