The rapid rise of the firm of Messrs. Boots, Ltd., the chemists, is generally known, and the fact that in the course of one lifetime it has been built up from the most modest beginnings to a gigantic concern owning 852 branches throughout Great Britain is, in itself, a business romance of special note. The head office of the firm is situated in the centre of Nottingham, and around it are grouped many large factories
and warehouses in which its products are made and stored prior to distribution. The
centre of a city, however, is not the ideal place for an expanding manufacturing business, and as time has passed all available adjacent sites have been developed, with the result that 1927 found this firm developing still wider markets for its goods, but confined within a limited area on its manufacturing side. It was essential for something to be done to meet the emergency, and bringing the same progressive view on this problem as had been adopted throughout the development of the business, the directors purchased a virgin site in practically open country, three miles outside Nottingham.
Arthur Watson Legat