A breakdown of the UK's independent pharmacy market

Image: National Cancer Institute for Unsplash

As part of our recent Pharmacy Market Review 2025 report, we analysed the ownership structure of the UK pharmacy market, looking at who owns what type of pharmacies, which is the most acquisitive operator type, and what we can expect from the independent market this year.

MARKET COMPOSITION

As of 31 March 2025, GPhC reported that there were 13,732 pharmacies across the UK. Of all of the pharmacies in England, 408 were distance-selling contracts. Unsurprisingly, the volume of 100-hour contracts had fallen to 784, a drop of 6.6% compared with the previous year.

Under the changes outlined in ‘The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2023’, many 100-hour contractors have reduced their core trading hours, with over 70% having been able to reduce them to between 72 and 80 hours. Interestingly, a recent FOI request shows that the majority of operators of these pharmacies have taken advantage of this as a way of reducing their cost base, with 35% of 100-hour pharmacies now trading the minimum permitted 72 hours a week, whilst a further 40% reduced their hours to between 73 and 80 hours. However, 9.6% continue to trade the full 100 hours a week.

OWNERSHIP BREAKDOWN

So, who owns these pharmacies, and how has the ownership structure changed over the last few years?

As you can see from the data below (GPhC, 31 March 2025), independent operators continued to dominate the market in 2025. This operator group owns the majority of pharmacies in the UK and grew further last year, with more first-time buyers entering the market.

Meanwhile, there were 8% fewer larger groups (between 21 and 300 pharmacies) in the market last year, and, though the number of operators with over 301 pharmacies remained the same, that operator type owned 6% fewer pharmacies in 2025 compared with the year before.

Notably, following its divestment and closure programme, which ran throughout 2023 and 2024, Boots saw a decrease in its estate of 5.4% in the year, with the overall numbers having reduced from 2,173 in 2022 to the current level of 1,741 - a 19.9% reduction in its network over the three years. As has been the case for a number of years now, the majority of these disposals have been acquired by the independent sector, increasing independent operators by 6%. The next biggest change was by small existing operators, which increased their estates by 4% over the year.

WHO’S BUYING

Buyer profiles last year remained broadly consistent with what we have seen in previous years, with the majority of applicants being first-time buyers.

31% of pharmacy deals we transacted in 2025 were to first-time buyers, 11% to independent contractors, 30% to small groups, 22% to regional multiples and only 6% to large group/corporate operators. This demonstrates that the vast majority of the activity is from acquisitive and agile smaller and first-time operators taking advantage of the many opportunities that exist in the marketplace. These percentages are broadly similar to those seen in 2024.

Source: Business Outlook 2026

EXPECTATIONS FOR THE INDEPENDENT MARKET IN 2026

• Cost pressures will remain a key issue in pharmacy despite the recent increase in funding
• The continued rationalisation of non-performing corporate assets
• We expect to see the continued increase in demand for private services within pharmacy
• Opportunities will remain for agile and forward-thinking operators
• We will continue to see a number of bank-driven or administrator-led sales

To find out more about the UK pharmacy market, read our ‘Pharmacy Market Review 2025’ report, here.