At Alliance Boots, we recognise our responsibilities as a corporate citizen to deliver what we promise and to maintain the trust of our customers and stakeholders. For us, the key to successful cause-related marketing is to find causes that make
a difference in improving people’s quality of life and that are strategically relevant to us. Our chosen partners benefit from our financial resources, the willingness and enthusiasm of our people and our ability to reach supporters through our customer base. At the same time, we gain the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to the communities we serve and to reinforce popular trust in our brands.
In 2010/11, in the UK, nearly £2.5 million was raised during the year for Macmillan Cancer Support and in addition, over £615,000 was raised for the BBC Children In Need Appeal, which is in its seventh year of support. In addition to raising proceeds, we continued to focus our efforts on raising awareness of those charities we support.
In October 2009, Boots UK launched Boots WebMD, an innovative health information website and consumer resource. The site was created in partnership with U.S.-based WebMD, the world’s largest and most experienced brand of online health information. The launch of the site is an important step towards the aim of providing accessible healthcare to all. It also draws on the expertise of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), by incorporating its online resource NHS Choices, as well as the British Medical Journal (BMJ), using its digital content ‘BMJ Best Treatments’. Boots WebMD provides users with a valuable resource of information on how to look after their health and wellbeing by providing viewers with information on a variety of health conditions as well as general health news and feature articles on topics such as nutrition.
We continue to work with local authorities with the aim of making healthcare more accessible to our customers and during the year another five doctors’ surgeries opened in Boots stores in the UK, bringing the total to 13. These surgery facilities are located to provide greater access to the public and built in line with NHS requirements. The provision of these clinics and surgeries affords opportunities for more integrated healthcare solutions and services such as dietetics, back pain clinics, physiotherapy, podiatry and GP branch surgery are all based together in one store. Together with a pharmacy and optician, patients are offered a comprehensive range of health services all in one location and close to their home.
Alliance Boots Limited is one of 240 signatories of the Public Health Responsibility Deal launched in March 2011 by the UK Health Secretary. Since September 2010, five groups working on the topics of food, alcohol, behavioural change, physical activity and health at work have developed a series of pledges for action. Our UK businesses are supporting the core commitments and pledges, as well as some if its collective pledges on ‘Health at Work’ and ‘Food’. In terms of ‘Health at Work’, our UK businesses have agreed to use only occupational health services, which meet the new occupational health standards and which aim to be accredited by 2012/13, and to include a section on the health and wellbeing of our employees within our UK reports and/or websites. Regarding ‘Food’, Boots UK has committed to the salt targets for the end of 2012 agreed by the Responsibility Deal, which collectively will deliver a further 15% reduction on 2010 targets.