The parent company had problems. We paid the price.

Boots UK was doing reasonably well. The issues were at Walgreens Boots Alliance level — the American pharmacy business, the debt structure, the decisions made thousands of miles away. But when the cost-cutting came, it came to Nottingham. The UK head office. People who had nothing to do with US pharmacy challenges, who'd been building the UK business, who'd delivered results. There's a particular feeling that comes from being told your role is redundant not because of anything you've done or failed to do, but because a corporate parent on another continent needed to improve its balance sheet before an earnings call. You can't argue with it. There's nothing to appeal to. The decision was made by people who don't know your name.