THE future of Boots stores in Tendring have been thrown into doubt after the beauty retailer announced plans to close hundreds of stores.

Boots, which has branches in Clacton, Harwich and Manningtree, unveiled plans to shut down 300 shops over the next year on Tuesday.

The news of the historic firm’s decision to push forward with the raft of closures came in spite of the fact the company has recorded strong sales over the latest quarter.

The move, which Boots has said will impact stores in close proximity to other sites, will sees its store estate reduced from 2,200 to 1,900 branches.

Despite the shake-up, bosses have stressed no redundancies are being proposed, with impacted workers instead set to be redeployed across the Boots network.

A spokesman for Boots: “Evolving the store estate in this way allows Boots to concentrate its team members where they are needed.

"[It means Boots can] focus investment more acutely in individual stores with the ambition of consistently delivering an excellent and reliable service in a fresh and up-to-date environment.”

The Gazette asked Boots whether stores in Tendring could close but a spokesman said the company would not be releasing details of affected stores at this stage.