‘Affordable’ 30-hour ‘lifestyle’ pharmacy sold to locum pharmacist
A County Durham pharmacy has been snapped up by a locum pharmacist, despite its “limited trading hours”, a broker has announced.
Moorside Pharmacy in Consett, County Durham, presented the “ideal opportunity” for the locum pharmacist who bought it, specialist business property adviser Christie & Co announced today (April 30).
Previous owner Rachel Hurst had operated the pharmacy since 1995 but decided to sell the premises to “allow her to downsize her operation and concentrate on her busier pharmacies” in County Durham – another in Consett and two in Crook, it said.
It added that the “30-hour community pharmacy” dispenses an average of 3,200 NHS items per month and “shares a building with a small GP surgery” on the eastern tip of the Pennines near the boundary of Northumberland.
After a confidential sales process, the pharmacy was purchased for an undisclosed price “by locum pharmacist Monju Miah”, the property adviser said.
“He plans to run Moorside Pharmacy on a hands-on basis and promote additional services that will benefit the local population,” it added.
“More of a lifestyle business”
Commenting on the sale, Christie & Co director of pharmacy Karl Clezy said that “Moorside Pharmacy mainly attracted interest from first-time buyers as it was priced at the more affordable end of the scale”.
He added that it “presented an ideal opportunity for someone looking for more of a lifestyle business as it is only open 30 hours per week”.
“Although [it has] limited trading hours, the pharmacy will still perform well as a business, benefiting from its location inside the surgery building,” he said.
Christie Finance director Craig Dickson, who sourced the funding, added that Miah “is hugely experienced in the pharmacy sector” and is “looking forward to forging closer links with the local community”.
He said that Miah “had been looking for a pharmacy for some time” and saw the potential to “increase item numbers and services going forward”.
“We continue to have great success in arranging funding within the pharmacy sector for both first-time buyers and experienced operators alike,” he added.
In February, Christie & Co announced the sale of the only pharmacy on Inner Hebridean island Islay.
Married couple Lisa and Simon Simpson said they noticed that the “quaint” island pharmacy had been placed on the market and leapt at the chance to move to their beloved Scotland for a “total lifestyle change”.
