My time as a pharmacy owner: from corporate disposal to thriving portfolio

Having now acquired three pharmacies, including some corporate divestments, how has your acquisition strategy evolved since your first purchase in 2021?

“Brighton Hill back in 2021 was an opportunistic buy - I learned the business as I went, and the strategy only really sharpened afterwards. Medhill was a deliberate move to take out a competitor, and SR was about getting a grip on the whole of Basingstoke, so that all of my pharmacies sit in one town and are far easier to manage and oversee.

“When I look at a site now, I start with the patient numbers, then use PharmaDash to study the pharmacies around it; what they’re dispensing and whether there’s genuine headroom for me to win items and grow the dispensing volume. Consolidating everything into one town began as an afterthought, but it became the strategy.”

What initially attracted you to corporate disposals as an investment opportunity?

“My main driving force is the data - I study it to evaluate the business and work out whether I can keep growing it in that area. What I’ve found with corporate disposals is that they carry higher staffing levels and overheads than they need; as a small operator, I can strip those costs out. With a more efficient PMR on the market, I can improve operations and reduce staffing to what the pharmacy actually requires.

“There’s also a value angle as corporate disposals tend to come in at a slightly keener multiple than an equivalent independent, so you’re buying well from the outset.”

What have you learned about assessing these types of pharmacies that you didn’t know when buying your first site?

“I still lead with the dispensing data; how much the local surgeries are issuing, what’s out there in the market, and how much of it I can realistically capture through good customer service, the right strategy and targeting the right patients. The biggest lesson, though, is the cost of the team you inherit. Corporate sites tend to carry more staff than the pharmacy genuinely needs, and that has to be factored in from the start.

“The other lesson is to be careful with the data you’re handed. With a corporate disposal, the dispensing items usually drop after the takeover, so you have to underwrite to that reality rather than the headline numbers.”

What are the first changes you typically implement after taking over a corporate-owned branch?

“Day one, my priority is upgrading or changing the PMR - that alone saves a huge amount of time. Next, I put in an ordering platform, a cascade system, to get purchasing right. Then it’s about retaining patients through better service and properly training the staff on the new systems.

“After I took on Medhill, I also introduced hub-and-spoke dispensing, running it through the robot at Brighton Hill as the hub.”

What have been the biggest challenges in turning these pharmacies into profitable businesses?

“The biggest challenge is the financial one: the margin pressure and the squeeze on pharmacy funding. The way I work through it is to make use of the best tools available; the cascade ordering system helps me protect margin and minimise losses. Alongside that, I’m always introducing private services to make the business more lucrative, running them in parallel with driving the NHS services.”

How have you approached engaging and motivating staff following the transition from corporate to independent ownership?

“A takeover is unsettling - people worry about their jobs and their routines - so in those first weeks I make a point of being visible and present, reassuring the team and listening. Beyond that, it’s about making their jobs easier rather than just busier. The new PMR, the cascade ordering and the robot and hub-and-spoke take a lot of the drudgery and pressure out of the day, and that’s a win I’ve delivered for them, not just for the business.

“I also pull people into the clinical and private services like Pharmacy First, which makes the work far more rewarding than box-shifting to a corporate target and builds real pride in being a local, independent community pharmacy.”

What key actions have made the most significant difference to performance across your three sites?

“First and foremost, my leadership - guiding the team and being clear about what I expect from them. Second, the PMR upgrade and the cascade ordering system. And third, patient awareness of all the services we provide, combined with making the dispensing process as efficient as possible, so that prescriptions are ready and patients can collect the same day, within 24 hours of the script coming in.”

How has moving from one pharmacy to a small group changed your approach to management and operations?

“I believe in systems. I put the same system into every branch I own - the PMR and the cascade ordering system, standardised across all of them. From there, it’s about running on data: I review the team’s data monthly, delegate clearly to each manager, and track the business's key KPIs, with weekly KPI tracking and monthly meetings with the managers.

“Every operation is carefully thought through before it’s implemented, and I review and optimise each process every quarter because there’s always room to grow.”

From your experience, how do corporate disposals compare in today’s market, and do you think the opportunity is still there for buyers?

“I do think the opportunity is still there on the corporate side. The key is targeting the right pharmacy in the area - studying your data, putting the right systems in place and seeing where you can add value. Find the gap in the local market, and look at how you can bring in private services, because that’s where the future of the sector is.”

What advice would you give to anyone considering acquiring a corporate disposal for the first time?

“Do your homework on the data. Study the area, the surgery, and the competitor pharmacies, and understand how they’re performing. Win your staff over early, and grow beyond the NHS into private services - that’s the key to pharmacy growth.”