Alliance Boots, Britain’s biggest pharmacist, said today it would cut 1,500 jobs from its wholesale division.

Announcement of the restrucutirng came as Alliance Boots hailed the performance of its own-label anti-ageing skincare range as it posted an 11.6 per cent increase in profit.

The private equity-backed company, which was taken private in 2007, reported a 15.5 per cent increase in revenue to £20.5 billion. It posted profit before tax of £13 million, or £101 million not including tax credits, in the year ending March 31.

Last year, it posted a loss of £64 million, before the inclusion of tax credits. The company was able to claim credits against its £613 million interest payments.

Stefano Pessina, the billionaire executive chairman of Alliance Boots, said that Boots’s No7 cosmetics brand maintained its market leading position. New products, such as its much-vaunted Protect & Perfect beauty serum, have also performed well.

Of the 1,500 job cuts, around 200 will be in Britain. Around a quarter of the jobs had already been cut by March 31. Alliance Boots said that it would create 1,700 net jobs by the end of the year.

Mr Pessina, who has been reported to be searching for a chief executive to run the business day-to-day, said he was confident the pharmaceuticals wholesale and retail businesses would perform well this year.

“This is a great group with great brands and market-leading positions in attractive markets. We are fully committed to the development and growth of Alliance Boots and believe that we are on track to become the world’s leading pharmacy-led health and beauty group,” he said in a statement.

Like-for-like sales in Boots UK rose 1.3 per cent, and revenue from its British dispensing division increased 7.5 per cent.

Boots Opticians’ merger with Dolland & Aitchison, which will create Britain’s biggest optician group, was completed after the year end.

Alliance Boots operates more than 3,200 health and beauty outlets. It was taken private in June 2007 by Mr Pessina and KKR, the private equity firm, in an £11 billion deal.

In 2006, the Nottingham-based Boots merged with Alliance UniChem, the distributor, to form Alliance Boots.

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