IT was an occasion unlikely to be repeated – the Italian billionaire owner of Boots, Stefano Pessina, with Elizabeth Campbell Parish, grand daughter of the company's founder Jesse Boot.

She just remembers her grandfather with his long white hair and white moustache.

The acquisition of Boots by Mr Pessina saw the value of her shares rise enormously. But it had cost her a lot of tax, she said forcefully.

The occasion was the 160th anniversary of the company which became a household name.

Mr Pessina, who put an estimated £1.5bn of his own money into the purchase of Boots, revealed he had made approaches to five different chief executives in an effort to buy Boots.

Today, his energy is devoted to his ambitious plans to export the brand across Europe and further. It is not just the healthcare shops but some of the brands which can now be found in independents in Europe and America.

"Boots has become more international but it is still a Nottingham business," he said.

"Even if we were able to sell Boots products everywhere in the world, Boots would still be based in Nottingham."

More than two years after taking full control of Boots, Mr Pessina has lost none of his excitement, energy and ambition.

He is finding new markets for his wholesale pharmaceuticals business and most of his Alliance and Moss chemists in the UK have been re-branded as Boots, Your Local Pharmacy.

Heritage is important to a company although it could go both ways, admitted Mr Pessina.

"The heritage here at Boots is highly positive," he said. "Heritage is the know-how of people. It is opportunities given to us and we must save those opportunities."

But the danger is that a company can become complacent, forgetting the world around it is changing, although there seems little danger of that under this chairman who is only two years off 70.

"But let's be honest, when a company has good assets, and you take out the less interesting parts, the good assets are just better. Sometimes it requires a lot of patience. some common sense, but it is not a difficult."

It is a matter of pride that Alliance Boots is opening an increasing number of stores overseas. Thailand, where Boots began investing in the mid 1990s, has grown from five to 160 stores. Franchises have opened in the Gulf. It is testing the market in Holland.

"We are quite relaxed about transplanting the Boots brand there and we are thinking about other countries where we could re-brand some pharmacies as Boots," he said.

Boots has learnt the lesson that even if a Boots store will not work in some countries, the products will.

Under the name Boots Laboratories, products invented in Nottingham such as rejuvenating skin care treatment Perfect and Protect are available in independent pharmacies in France and Portugal and are already being sold in the US, Canada and Sweden.

Other countries will quickly follow, said Mr Pessina.

"We are looking at different possibilities to accelerate the presence of these Boots Laboratories lines to most European pharmacies," he added.

A key question is how Boots 2,600 stores ion the UK are performing on the high street.

Mr Pessina said: "Boots has been quite resilient, even more resilient than we thought.

"Of course, we have made a lot of investment, we have improved the quality of our stores, we have improved the service and spent a lot of money coaching our people in terms of training.

"We see part of this investment coming back. Overall, the results on the high street are really encouraging.

"People are spending but they are more careful. They select more carefully.

"Margins remain good and are not suffering.

"We are well known and always offering good deals to customers and will continue to do so."

Mr Pessina said he was not winning customers from supermarkets which have been blamed for pinching them.

"They come from other high street retailers near where we are. From time to time, people find it more convenient to buy in Boots because we have a better offer."

Boots scientists are working on a number of new products following the extraordinary success of its Protect and Perfect skincare range.

"We have just launched a new version, Protect and Perfect Intense. We are working not just on skincare but also on the healthcare side. We hope we will be able put new products on the market when testing is completed."

In the past Mr Pessina has hinted at expansions into areas such as banking but this is not an immediate ambition.

"We have to go a long way before we think of financial services.

"It may be of interest in the future but not in the next two or three years."

Mr Pessina confirmed the company was still looking at closing its final salary pension scheme.

"We are looking at it and analysing all the options and we will come sooner or later to a decision. We live in a world that is changing and we have to change with the world."

Mr Pessina said that under his ownership, the company has increased the number of employees by "many, many thousands".

He said the company had to adapt and modify its working conditions in order to compete successfully.

"The alternative is to reduce the number of people and I don't believe this is a good alternative, particularly today and the next years when unemployment will be the major risk to our economies."

In buying Boots, Mr Pessina was backed by the American private equity house KKR.

He was not prepared to speculate on how long KKR would stay with Alliance Boots before seeking an exit route.

"I think they will continue to stay with us for many, many years ahead. I believe probably we will go public sooner or later.

"But this doesn't mean KKR will sell everything.

"I am convinced KKR will continue to stay with us for many, many year ahead.

"They won't sell out completely. This company will continue to grow and there are not many companies able to grow continuously and constantly."