Boots plans to boost market share with `health' strategy

First there was Boots the Chemist, then Boots Opticians, and soon there could be Boots the Dentist. In the battle for market share, Boots is planning to offer its customers more than just products - it wants to sell them expert advice on healthy living, writes Sameena Ahmad.

Boots, the chemist, car parts and DIY retailer, said yesterday that it was planning to roll out dental services to customers in a programme designed to woo customers from the supermarkets. The company, which also reported interim profits up 6 per cent to pounds 253m, said that it planned to roll out its current five concept chemist stores over the next three years.

The stores offer an expanded range of services such as counters advising customers on skin care, oral hygiene and hair colouring. Steve Russell, joint managing director who calls the programme "positive staffing", said Boots would build on its experience in offering pharmacy and optical consultation: "There is a massive interest in well-being and healthy-living. We can use our staff in an interface with customers providing advice in a way that supermarkets can't do," said Steve Russell, joint managing director.

However giving customers advice on tooth care could be controversial. While Boots stressed it had no plans to replace dentists and said it could train existing staff in oral hygiene, the company is already employing one registered dentist, though not practising, to advise customers in a pilot store in Bexley Heath.

A spokesman for the General Dental Council, which registers dentists, said he would be concerned if Boots was trying to offer advice that should come from qualified dentists.

"There is a gray area here. Legally only certain companies can employ dentists to practice dentistry and that includes advice. We would be concerned to clarify the situation with Boots."