Pessina signalled his commitment to the business by opting to be paid in shares, acquiring an 8% stake in Walgreens and taking a seat on its board. Pessina, who turned his family's ailing Naples drug wholesaler into the pharmacy company Alliance UniChem, which merged with Boots in 2006, said the manufacturing jobs in Nottingham were safe. He said the site would be the research and development centre for the merged group and new jobs could be created if Boots' own-brand products, which include Botanics and Boots Pharmaceuticals, were required in greater volumes. Pessina had already hinted that his preferred exit would be via another merger rather than a fresh stock exchange listing: "If you do an IPO, you create financial value," he said. "If you do a transformational deal, you create financial value and industrial value." Walgreens is keeping its headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois and its chief executive, Gregory Wasson, revealed that the companies had started talks about 18 months ago.