Sales at Boots dropped in the third quarter, the chemist chain's owner has said.
American parent Walgreens Boots Alliance reported that its international sales were down 1.6 per cent in the three months to May 31, mostly due to a 1% decline at Boots UK.
Comparable pharmacy sales at the high street chain were up 0.8% in the period, but retail sales dropped 2.6%.
It comes as the retail stalwart grapples with tough market conditions both in the UK and elsewhere in the world.
In April, Boots said it would review its near 2,500-strong store estate as it looks to cut costs.
READ MORE: 200 Boots stores earmarked for closure across UK
It comes on the same day Boots opened a "store of the future" in London's Covent Garden, which features new beauty brands and express pick-up lanes for prescriptions.
Overall, the Walgreens Boots Alliance's sales in the quarter increased 0.7% to 34.6 billion US dollars (£27.24 billion).
In the US, sales were up 2.3% to 26.5 billion dollars (£20.86 billion) due to an increase in pharmacy sales.
But profits were down due to the issues in the UK, as well as lower US pharmacy margins and retail sales.
Adjusted operating income dropped 11.7% to 1.7 billion US dollars, while earnings per share were down 16.5% to 1.13 dollars (89p).
Stefano Pessina, executive vice chairman and CEO, said the transformation plans were already paying off.
"Following a difficult second quarter, we made progress in the third quarter against the strategic goals we set, and are pleased to report an improvement in our US comparable growth compared with the first half of the year," he said.
Starbucks UK has slumped to an annual loss for the first time since 2013, after it was weighed down by cost increases and store closures.
The coffee chain saw its tax bill for the year rise despite posting the loss.
The firm's taxes have come under significant scrutiny in recent years after it was revealed in 2012 that the business paid only £8.6 million in corporation tax over a 14-year period.
READ MORE: Highland hotel Glencoe House sold to Scottish group Perle
In 2018, Starbucks UK Coffee Company saw its corporation tax bill rise by 22.9% to £4 million.
The UK arm plunged to a pre-tax loss of £17.2 million for the year to September 2018, down from a £4.5 million profit in the previous year.
It said it made the loss after it was impacted by "very challenging" high street trading conditions and "generally low" consumer confidence.
Life insurance business ReAssure Group has revealed its listing on the London Stock Exchange will value the company at between £2.8 billion and £3.3 billion.
Around 26% of the company will be available to buy on the markets, costing between 280p and 330p a share when listing next month.
ReAssure buys and runs insurance policies, such as life insurance, from other businesses.
It has 4.3 million policies in the UK, with £68.7 billion assets under management.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article