‘Popular’ Glasgow pharmacy changes hands for first time since 1987
A Glasgow pharmacy has been sold after generating “several notes of interest” despite the market being “flooded” with Lloydspharmacy’s “entire Scottish estate”, according to Christie & Co.
Macbon Chemist in Glasgow sold for an undisclosed amount for the first time in almost 40 years, specialist business property adviser Christie & Co announced yesterday (November 7).
Christie & Co said that Elizabeth Mclaughlin, who had owned the pharmacy since 1987, decided to sell it “to allow her to pursue a well-earned retirement”.
The “popular” pharmacy is located in the Tollcross area in the east-end of Glasgow and dispenses around 8,000 NHS items per month, it added.
A “well-performing” pharmacy, it was mostly run by Ms Mclaughlin along with a team of locum and employed pharmacists, the broker said.
Ron Badger, who owns another pharmacy in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow, purchased Macbon Chemist following a confidential sales process with Christie & Co and using funding secured by its sister company, independent finance broker Christie Finance, it added.
“In good hands”
Former owner Ms Mclaughlin said that “over the years” she had aspired “to make the pharmacy friendly and welcoming to our local community”.
She added that she and her team had “built up a great and trusted relationship” with clients.
“It was with great sadness that I decided that the time had come to sell the business,” Ms Mclaughlin said.
However, she said that she is “reassured that it has been left in good hands” with Mr Badger.
Market “flooded with opportunities”
Director of pharmacy at Christie & Co Karl Clezy claimed that the pharmacy was put up for sale “at the same time as Lloydspharmacy placed its entire Scottish estate of around 200 branches on the market”.
He said that Christie & Co “managed to generate several notes of interest from existing contractors and first-time buyers alike” despite the market “being flooded with opportunities”.
C+D approached Lloydspharmacy for comment.
“There remains an appetite for well-performing independently owned pharmacies that have the potential to grow,” Mr Clezy said.
Scotland sales
C+D reported a raft of Lloydspharmacy sales that occurred in Scotland this summer.
In August, Well Pharmacy announced that it had bought 11 Lloydspharmacy branches in Scotland while a specialist finance company revealed that Dears Pharmacy group was also set to acquire 12 Lloydspharmacy branches in Scotland.
In July, the Right Medicine Pharmacy group announced that it had purchased six former Lloydspharmacy branches across Scotland and C+D reported on the purchase of another Lloydspharmacy branch by pharmacist brothers James and Brendan Semple.
In June, a small Scottish pharmacy group announced it had bought back two Glasgow pharmacies that its previous owners had sold to Lloydspharmacy 20 years ago, while Lloydspharmacy’s parent company sold its 32-strong travel clinic group Masta – which had branches in Glasgow, Falkirk and Aberdeen.
And in May, news broke that Rowlands Pharmacy had acquired 30 Lloydspharmacy branches in Scotland in what it called a "significant investment in growing our network north of the border", with C+D later revealing the locations of these branches.
Also in May, C+D reported that Scotland-based multiple Davidsons Chemists was to acquire five Lloydspharmacy branches.
