Oakham’s Form 6 recently visited Boots HQ in Nottingham to explore how the retailer has morphed from its ’bricks and mortar’ shops to have a growing online presence. They were the first pupils to be invited post Covid.
Throughout the day the students learned about how the Boots brand, founded by entrepreneur, Jesse Boot, pioneered the UK market with ‘over the counter’ pharmaceuticals. They also followed its journey on how it became an integral part of the community in the late 70’s and 80’s, to how it is now slightly reducing its High Street presence to focus on its online platform.
Teacher of Business Studies Laura Urban said, “This trip was a great opportunity to show our students the real world of business. The students used the Boots heritage as a brand to develop integrated marketing plans for product relaunches and the celebration of the Queens Platinum jubilee in store and online. They visited the national distribution centre to look at how IT has impacted on processes, e.g. reducing the number of personnel involved in despatch.
In the afternoon they investigated Boots.com and its different divisions and learned about how the ever-evolving platform is driving the sales for Boots. They looked at how the website plays an inherent role in Boot’s future survival as it competes with new players such as Amazon and navigates the ever-changing external business environment.
At Oakham Business is taught post-16 at A-level, BTEC and the International Baccalaureate. Its courses aim to develop a critical understanding of organisations, the markets they serve and the process of adding value.
