As workers across the City head back to their desks after the summer break, one executive is starting somewhere entirely new. Alex Baldock, the former boss of Currys, will take up his post as chief executive of health and beauty retailer Boots on Tuesday, City AM understands.

Boots, one of the UK's biggest and best-known retailers, has secured the signature of one of the City's most talked-about bosses. Baldock began his career as a management consultant before joining Barclays as a corporate director, later leading online retailer Very for six years ahead of his stint as chief executive of Currys.

As Boots prepares to welcome Baldock, the company faces a big decision. Its owner, US private equity firm Sycamore Partners, which acquired Boots as part of its roughly $10bn takeover of Walgreens Boots Alliance completed in 2025, has been weighing an initial public offering (IPO) or another private sale — either of which could value the retailer at more than £7bn.

Boots had been in sales talks with the Weston family, the billionaire owners of FTSE 100-listed Associated British Foods, and Australian pharmaceutical group Sigma Healthcare. Sigma walked away from those discussions in June, fuelling speculation that a return to London's public markets could be the more likely future for Boots. The retailer had been listed in London until its £11.1bn sale in 2007, when it became the first-ever FTSE 100 firm to quit the market in a private equity takeover — a piece of history that would make a renewed listing a symbolic moment for the London market, which has seen several high-profile departures in recent years.

Whether Boots opts for a public float or a private sale, Baldock's brief will be "about accelerating growth, improving productivity and positioning Boots strongly for whatever lies ahead," independent retail analyst Catherine Shuttleworth told City AM.

Baldock earned plaudits for his successful turnaround of Currys, where he slashed the group's store footprint, strengthened cash generation and improved profitability. The FTSE 250 firm's share price was in retreat when he was appointed chief executive in February 2018, having shed nearly 60 per cent of its value since the stock's highpoint at the start of 2016. But Currys' share price has gained more than 32 per cent to 150p in the past year, and the firm grew profit by a fifth to £153m in the year to May.

"Currys is trending in the right direction on every dimension that matters," Baldock said in his last update to shareholders. "I'll be a loyal Currys customer, advocate and shareholder all my life, and will be cheering on Fredrik [Tonnesen] and his world class team."

Baldock is admired in the City for his knack for communicating a clear strategy to investors and colleagues alike, Shuttleworth said. "[He] has a track record in taking big, established retailers and making them sharper, more modern and more commercially focused."

When Baldock joined Currys, the electrical retailer was suffering from a struggling mobile business, a lack of high-margin services and a "bloated" logistics network, said Panmure Liberum analyst Wayne Brown. "It was a business that needed a lot of love and it needed a central ethos and focus. And [that's] what Alex Baldock is very good at doing."

Many of the issues facing Currys in 2018 do not apply to Boots in 2026. Boots benefits from higher spend frequency than the electronics sector, offers some higher-margin services and can engender a loyal customer base through its wide offering, which includes opticians and pharmacies alongside retailing — an advantage in a UK health and beauty market where rivals have been investing heavily in store estates and own-brand ranges.

Still, Baldock has work to do, Brown says. "The quality of the estate is hugely variable. There's some terrifically amazing flagship stores, and then there's a huge amount of stores which need a lot of love and attention." The group operates more than 1,800 stores across the UK and invested in refurbishments at more than 40 flagship sites and more than 180 beauty halls in the past year. But Boots' estate remains "skewed towards" high-street stores in small towns, Brown said, which have "weaker economics". The group should forge ahead with opening more of its beauty and health-only formats, he added.

Beyond the sprawling store profile and competition from retailers such as Holland & Barrett and Marks & Spencer, Baldock's first task will be laying the groundwork for a culture shift at Boots, Brown said. "There's going to be lots of people in the business that have been there for many years, and your biggest challenge is winning people over."

Baldock commanded a "strong and loyal following" at Currys, an executive at the retailer told City AM. "He's a strategic thinker but can react to changing circumstances as needed," they said, adding that his success in steering Currys through the Covid-19 pandemic showed he is "cool in a crisis".

Another former colleague, who worked in middle management at Very — then known as Shop Direct — during Baldock's tenure at the online retailer, told City AM that Boots' new boss is a "big hitter". Baldock was hired at Very because of his "gravitas" and "serious approach," they said. "I think the view of him going into Boots is [that] he will bring a level of expertise and seriousness into that business."

While Very's previous boss had been known for his affability, Baldock came across as a "hard taskmaster," the colleague said. "[He] is focused on the result, [and] less so [on] the softer elements. But I certainly enjoyed [his tenure] and saw him make a positive change in Shop Direct."

Ever since Sigma Healthcare withdrew from sales talks, Boots has refused to be drawn on whether it prefers a sale to the Westons or a return to the London Stock Exchange. People close to the company insist it is pushing ahead with its growth strategy regardless of the talks. Baldock's opening months are therefore likely to be watched closely for signals on both the pace of operational change and the timeline of any ownership decision.

"Obviously, from a public markets perspective, I'd love it to IPO," Liberum's Brown said. "I think the City would have a lot of belief in [Baldock] because of what he's delivered on. He's definitely got his supporters out there, and he's done a good job in the past."

Announcing Baldock's appointment in May, a spokesperson for Boots said: "As we look ahead, we are fully committed to continuing to offer an outstanding experience for all our communities and strongly believe in the opportunity for significant long-term growth at Boots.

"Alex is an experienced, transformational leader with a track record of success and we are delighted he will be joining us as we embark on our next phase of transformation, growth and investment."