Alex Baldock is about to take on a heck of a job.
It will soon be up to him to spruce up Boots, the beloved chemist, part of the fabric of Britain since 1849, and persuade a new breed of customers that Amazon and rivals such as Superdrug just aren’t as good.
His fans, of which there are plenty in the City, would say that he has done harder jobs before.
When he arrived as chief executive of Currys eight years ago it was widely thought to be heading for the retail graveyard. Instead it is back as a staple of the high street and perhaps the first name people think of when they want to buy a new TV.
Baldock, 55, is an unusual retailer. He isn’t like the Sir Philip Green mavericks of the golden age of shops.
Nor is he one of the battle-hardened old traders who started on the shop floor, worked their way up, and were happy for their whole life to be consumed by retailing.
He is, he would admit, a bit posh.
Baldock has a double first degree from Worcester College, Oxford, is a history buff, and grew up in Paris before attending boarding school in Northamptonshire.
“I had a really privileged upbringing,” he told one interviewer. Not defensively, it’s just a fact.
He is also, say folk who have worked with him, quite a lot of fun.
If he flew under the radar somewhat as the boss of Shop Direct, now the Very Group, which owns Littlewoods and was founded by the infamous Barclay brothers David and Frederick, at Currys, he was outspoken.
He thought government policies on employment costs and business rates were daft, and he said so. The gist was: Why are you making it harder for me to employ more people?
Writing in The Times earlier this year, he said: “Growth is the only way to fund more schools, hospitals and anti-drone defences. It boosts jobs, too, and we need more of those. As the prime minister has said, 3m people of working age on sickness benefits isn’t just an economic emergency, it’s a moral one.”
My memory of him from a private lunch – it was years ago – is that he was unguarded for a CEO, open about naming the people in government and in business who he thought weren’t up to the job. It was a fairly long list.
At Boots he has a different set of problems. For a start he has to deal with the mercurial Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina, a part-owner who is charismatic and unlikely to take a back seat. How Pessina fits in with Baldock is not clear.
Baldock is to lead Boots in the UK, Ireland and Thailand, but is not responsible for the operations in Mexico and Germany. City analysts expect they will be sold before any float.
The advantage Boots in the UK has over Currys is that it has already got at least some of its sparkle back.
Beauty is always in fashion, but the “wellness” trend has brought new shoppers into the stores, who might well splash out on some No 7 make-up while they are there.
Other Boots plus points: 52,000 staff, 17 million members of the Boots Advantage Card, 8 million regular users of the App. And 80 per cent of the population lives within 10 minutes of a store.
Even shoppers who think they can get all they need from Amazon want Boots at least sometimes. Buying shaving products online is one thing. If you have a rash, perhaps you want to talk to the skilled pharmacist at Boots before you medicate.
Boots also has a significant social function as a near offshoot of the NHS.
Its role in delivering prescriptions and regular health advice makes it two things: A national treasure. A resource the rest of us would not like to see obviously exploited.
The word on the street is that Mr Baldock is to gear the business up for a flotation on the stock market that might value the company at £7bn. It is not certain he will do this, but that seems the way to bet.
The big question is, does he use old investors’ money to spruce up the stores before the float, or new investors’ money afterwards? There is no question that a chunk of the 1800 stores need a refresh. The shiny new Boots shops enjoyed in London don’t bare much relation to the rest of the estate.
Moreover, if a dowdy pub near you gets a makeover you might make a visit just to look.
Would you do the same for a local, made-over, chemist? How much might he waste on spruce-ups of stores that exist on high streets that are dying anyway?
One City fan of Baldock says: “Boots at its best is very good, but it isn’t always at its best. And there is the very long shadow of Pessina in the background.”
Another offers: “He has an unfair reputation for being terribly serious. He is more fun than people think he is and has a fantastic ability to connect with people. He just has high expectations.”
As CEO of Boots, the expectations will now be on him.
