The Prime Minister has said that entry in this parliament is unlikely, but that business should prepare for entry. Each business unit will make its own judgement about the pressures in the marketplace in which it operates and will therefore change its systems and procedures independently. We have retail businesses in the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands, and manufacturing and marketing companies in nine of the first wave counties. Different Boots businesses see different benefits. Boots Healthcare International and Boots Contract Manufacturing would find some accounting and administrative tasks easier if most of their business was conducted in a single currency.
Retail businesses see few direct benefits.
Retailers will be in the front line in managing the transition for consumers. Our customers may be confused at the changeover, suspicious of the prices quoted in euros and be concerned that retailers are concealing price rises. Significant cost will be incurred to change our IS systems to support the changeover to the new currency. Retailers may be the main agents in distributing the new currency and recovering sterling. Given the volumes involved, this would be complex and costly.