OUR BOOTS HERITAGE

BCM has a rich manufacturing heritage. Originally founded as the manufacturing arm of Boots the Chemists, we manufactured healthcare and toiletry items to Boots stores up and down the length of the UK. As Boots the Chemists grew ever more successful, the requirement for a purpose built factory was established.

D10 – THE WONDER FACTORY

John Boot, the son of Jesse Boot, engaged the distinguished engineer, Owen Williams, who had designed the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, to produce a design for the new factory.

Williams' vision was to build a huge new manufacturing plant that would incorporate the very latest ideals of industrial production. Including the soapworks, which was competed in 1929, and this was to be followed by factory buildings for the manufacture, storage and distribution of ‘Wet' goods, (liquids, pastes and creams), and ‘Dry' goods, (powders and tablets).

Owen Williams had radical ideas about the modern factory: "the factory building is the shell surrounding a process. The object of the factory builder should… be fitness for purpose at minimum cost, in a combination with complete flexibility for replanning and alteration". He came nearest to achieving this vision with the design of D10 ‘Wets' factory for Boots – the first large industrial building in Britain to be built almost entirely using concrete and glass.

Now a Grade 1 listed building, D10 is deemed to be one of the most significant industrial buildings in the UK, being regarded as a "building of seminal importance in the history of Modern architecture in Britain"

BCM TODAY

Today BCM UK still operates from the historic D10 building on the Alliance Boots site in Nottingham, although production volumes have significantly increased to hundreds of thousands units each day. As well as making healthcare and beauty products for companies within Alliance Boots, BCM also manufactures for global brand owners and retailers.

Over the years, BCM has also acquired a manufacturing plant in France (BCM Cosmetique) for the manufacture of skincare and cosmetic items, and BCM Kosmetik in Germany for the manufacture of colour cosmetics.