Jhoots Pharmacy has bought 36 pharmacies from the now-defunct Lloydspharmacy community pharmacy estate, its financier HSBC UK announced on Monday (November 27).

Read more: Lloydspharmacy quits the high street: It’s the end of the world as we know it

According to HSBC, the bank has provided Jhoots with a £17.4m with which to purchase the branches, which it said are located in sites spanning “the Peak District to Hampshire”.

Last week (November 23), C+D exclusively revealed that Lloydspharmacy had exited the community pharmacy sector by “successfully” selling all of its 1,054 “high street and community pharmacies”.

Following its deal with Lloydspharmacy, which went through on October 5, Jhoots now “owns and operates” 63 pharmacies in the UK, according to HSBC.

It said that the acquisition would “protect” 212 jobs and create “up to” 130 further “new roles” including those for pharmacists and dispensers. The deal will also open up new “opportunities for apprentices and trainees”, it added.

Read more: Lloydspharmacy confirms 'successful sale' of all community pharmacies

The bank noted that its funding package would also allow Jhoots to refit stores and “enhance pharmacy offerings”. It said that this would provide patients with “access to urgent care services”, including doctors’ referrals, sexual health consultations and travel clinics.

 

A “vision” to grow

 

Sarbjit Jhooty, a director at Jhoots, said that HSBC had provided “support” to the business and its “vision to grow into a larger pharmacy chain”. 

Mr Jhooty said that the chain would offer “a strong face-to-face approach”, which he noted would give local communities “enhanced support”.

Read more: Jhoots buys a further 28 ‘unviable’ branches from Lloydspharmacy

Partho Bose, relationship director at HSBC, said that the bank’s support would allow Jhoots to “realise the business’s ambitious growth plans”. He added that the finance would assist in “protecting and creating jobs”.

Andy Oates, HSBC’s head of corporate banking in the West Midlands, added that the bank was “pleased to be supporting the growth of an important community business and regional economy".

Read more: Jhoots Pharmacy secures over £8m to implement hub-and-spoke model

Jhoots’ expansion follows from its April 2022 announcement that it had secured £8.23 million, also from HSBC, to implement a hub-and-spoke dispensing system.

And this is not the first time that Jhoots has bought pharmacies from the Lloydspharmacy estate.

In 2018, C+D revealed that Jhoots had purchased a total of 31 pharmacies from the multiple, after Lloydspharmacy’s then-parent company Celesio UK decided that it would cease trading in 182 pharmacies in England that it had deemed “commercially unviable”.

Read more: Jhoots buys three of Lloydspharmacy's 190 'unviable' branches

Lloydspharmacy previously told C+D that it was “selectively selling” some of its branches, the majority of which were going to “independent pharmacy owners and local businesspeople”.

It said it was glad that “colleagues from these stores” were moving into the employment of “successful, local businesses” and added that patients would see “no change in the way they use their local pharmacy”.