Larger research and development site will provide extra capacity to realise retailer’s US ambitions.

Boots hopes the Enterprise Zone will spearhead health and beauty innovation

Alliance Boots has unveiled transformation plans for disused parts of its Nottingham property as part of its status as an Enterprise Zone.

The initiative is expected to help the retailer extend its skincare research and development operations. It would also create more capacity to enable Boots to produce larger product volumes to facilitate its tie-up with US drugstore giant Walgreens, which it unveiled in June.

Alliance Boots chief executive of health and beauty Alex Gourlay said: “It will be primarily on the skincare side. Alliance Boots and Walgreens want to take the Boots brand to the US. We need to work out the supply chain detail.”

Stefano Pessina, executive chairman of Alliance Boots, said: “The Nottingham Enterprise Zone represents a unique opportunity to create a new innovation platform that will assist in the future development of the UK’s health, beauty and wellness market.

“As Alliance Boots continues to grow its international presence, Nottingham is, as always, extremely important to us. Our role and investment in the Enterprise Zone further illustrates our commitment to the region and the UK as a whole.”

The health and beauty retailer and pharmaceutical wholesaler will also improve flood defences on the site, upgrade access to and through the property and clear it up by installing modern infrastructure, such as power cables, water and drains, ready for commercial development. At the moment, a third of the Nottingham site is brownfield land.

Alliance Boots is an investor for the redevelopment work, although it declined to say how much will be ploughed into the project.

The retailer expects the work to take two to three years and it hopes to attract complementary businesses to take space on the site. Incentives to take space will include lower business rates and high-speed internet, as well as benefits from being based alongside Alliance Boots.