I've been looking at this market for about six months - the trouble is finding the right thing to buy. It failed to take off.Pure BeautyStandalone, upmarket beauty stores "We tried to roll it out too quickly. It cost a fortune," concedes a company spokesman now.WellbeingServices included reflexology, laser eye surgery, hair removal, dentistry and chiropody.. There's been huge under-investment."If history is anything to go by, what Boots does next won't be dull.
The real question, however, is not what it does next but whether - finally, after so many false starts - it will actually work.INS AND OUTSCar parts and bicyclesBoots acquired Halfords in 1989 as part of the Ward White takeover. Sold in 2002.Children's WorldA children's concept store.DIYAcquired Payless, Homestyle and Fads through Ward White. Sold in the late 1990s.InsuranceLinked with Royal & SunAlliance to offer health and travel cover in 1998.PaintingsIn the 1970s, the chemist shops sold a raft of unrelated products, including art.Pet foodThe group stopped selling this in 1987, despite annual sales of £20m.PhotographyA dedicated photographic shop was opened in 1987. The group has 1,400 shops and only the Post Office boasts more footfall per week. Yet it does not have enough products to fill the space in its bigger stores.Mr Baker has mooted the idea of bringing in partners such as the currency provider Travelex (rather, one would imagine, than Superdrug), but that plan does not win universal approval. "Boots could end up looking like a rummage sale," warns the former senior manager.And ultimately, if not surprisingly after so many wrong turns, Boots still has many to win over.
Says Simon Proctor, retail analyst at broker Charles Stanley: "Effectively it's going to stagnate. It will reach a nadir next year but then will bump along the bottom."It's been a hugely necessary exercise putting it on a much more sustainable footing. There's very little you can fault Richard Baker for in addressing that. It's just there are structural issues that aren't going to go away.
