Boots set for a little extra help

So what's all this about a failed banker being in the running for the top job at Boots – have the owners taken leave of their senses?
Far from it.
Andy Hornby may have had to leave Halifax Bank of Scotland with his tail between his legs, but he remains widely respected in the retail world.
Hornby is a retailer rather than a banker and it is his skills in using a brand to pull in the maximum number of customers that the Nottingham-based wholesaling, chemist and health and beauty retailing operation wants to bring on board.
That the news has leaked out may well be an attempt by someone to test the water and see what reaction surfaces when someone damaged by the banking collapse is considered for a big job.
While there might be some muttering about Teflon reputations and rewarding failure, the reality is that Alliance Boots wants a youthful, energetic dyed-in-the-wool retailer.
That is what Mr Hornby, who spent three years as retail boss at supermarket group Asda, really is. He marketed HBOS as almost a lifestyle brand where financial services were the key to you achieving all your ambitions in life.
What was underneath those financial services was a fatally flawed model, though it was one that was already in existence before Mr Hornby took charge.
So what's the logic in Hornby joining Alliance Boots? The answer may lie in comments made by Stefano Pessina, the company's executive chairman and biggest shareholder, in an interview with the Nottingham Evening Post a few weeks ago.
He said then: "We can't just count on the expansion of the market so we have to increase the offer for our customers.
"One of the offers could be financial products. But that doesn't mean we want to become a bank. May be some time in the future we will think of it, but not for now."
May be that future is closer than we thought.
UPDATE 10.45am: Alliance Boots has this morning confirmed Mr Hornby in the top job, emphasising his retail and marketing experience and his "collaborative management approach". He takes up the job next month and we'll see what he has to say about Nottingham's biggest business over the next few hours.