In their mid-twenties, a pharmacist is likely only a few years on from graduating from their MPharm, and probably still finding their feet in the pharmacy sector.
But not 26-year-olds Ather Diab and Farhad Mehmood, who already co-own two pharmacies in Edinburgh together - the first of which, Bruntsfield Pharmacy & Travel and Health Clinic, was one of two winners of Pharmacy Team of the Year at the 2026 C+D Awards in September.
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“We didn’t think we’d have one pharmacy, to be honest,” Mehmood tells C+D. “Lloyds happened and that opened the door for a lot of people.”
Diab says the timing of Lloydspharmacy exiting the sector in 2023 “worked in our favour” and they “grasped the opportunity” to buy Bruntsfield. Its rapid rise has exceeded even their own expectations.
“We both reflect on how things have happened over the last few years and it is quite remarkable the way everything has played out,” he adds.
Read more: Pharmacy in Person with Ather Diab and Farhad Mahmood, Bruntsfield Pharmacy
The pair took over their second pharmacy, Forrest Pharmacy & Travel and Health Clinic, in August and want to replicate the success they’ve seen at Bruntsfield.
“We did something similar three years ago when Lloyds decided to sell,” says Mehmood. “It was performing really poorly, and we were able to turn Bruntsfield around.
“We thought, ‘here’s an opportunity to do something similar’ at Forrest. Hopefully, we can see the same impact and achieve the same results and bring the business back to life.”
Evolving services and roles
Diab and Mehmood have never been too far from each other. They’re both from Glasgow, attended the same secondary school and both studied pharmacy at the University of Strathclyde before becoming pharmacy co-owners aged just 23.
C+D spoke to them after they’d just bought Bruntsfield, when they said they wanted to take the pharmacy “to new heights” – and they have done just that.
The pharmacy is based in an affluent area full of families, the elderly and students, and has 10 staff.
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Over the last year, revenue has more than doubled and Bruntsfield has grown to offer cryotherapy, weight management, HRT support, drug tests and baby gender testing on top of its NHS services.
The pharmacy became a registered Yellow Fever clinic to address gaps in local provision, and has built up relationships with local GP surgeries to increase referrals to its services. It has even started working with Specsavers to streamline referrals for ear conditions.
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Bruntsfield has also supported free Health MOT screenings to aid early prevention, with 50 patients from over 400 screenings going on to be identified as being at risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
And the pair have encouraged staff to train in advanced services to develop their skills, something that has helped ease the pressure on themselves as they grow into their business - and what helped Bruntsfield win Pharmacy Team of the Year.
“In the beginning, Farhad and I used to do a lot ourselves and didn’t have to rely on other team members,” Diab says.
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“That was the case for quite some time, but as the pharmacy grew with more patients and appointments, we had to start giving more responsibility to other team members.
“But it comes down to whether you are confident in the team,” he adds. “Are you able to trust them? It’s always something we think about when we’re bringing anyone on.
“If the answer is yes, then that’s positive. It’s more interesting for everyone because our and their role evolves.”
Chance to impress
Mehmood says winning the C+D award meant “a huge amount” to the pair and the team, adding that it “gave the staff a good motivation boost and it keeps us going”.
He says the team “all go above and beyond for our patients” - and this is evidenced by the other initiatives the pharmacy gets involved in.
Bruntsfield last year became a drop-off point for poverty charity The Hygiene Bank, allowing people to donate hygiene products, and it offers blister-pack recycling and vaccination discounts for schools, universities and nursery groups.
Read more: Pharmacy donates £3k of products to hygiene charity
Now, a few months into running Forrest, a 20-minute walk from Bruntsfield over The Meadows into Edinburgh Old Town, the pair are excited to impress the city’s visitors and students with their new independent prescribing qualifications.
“We’re able to help people that aren’t registered with GPs here, whether its new student that have come to the country or tourists that are visiting,” says Mehmood.
“We may be able to help them and prescribe, whereas that wasn’t something we were able to do before.
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“At Forrest, you still have affluent areas around it but there’s a lot more students because we’re right next to The University of Edinburgh,” he explains.
“The biggest difference is tourists because we’re very central. You get so many from America and go sightseeing at the castle, which is only a short while away from Forrest.”
“It’s an opportunity to show people from all over the world how quickly pharmacy is evolving here and how forward-thinking we are as a business,” Diab adds.
Working apart
The pair alternate between the pharmacies week-by-week and are happy with the team they inherited at Forrest from previous owners Right Medicine.
“Having that team at Forrest gives us the time to think about developing and growing the pharmacy, which is what we’re best at,” says Diab.
“In some ways, having two branches now has made things easier. If we’re short staffed one day in one location, we can ask staff if they’re willing to assist.”
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They’ve expanded Forrest’s consultation room, added digital screens to advertise their services and have started to establish the pharmacy online, too. But this expansion has one drawback: Diab and Mehmood now see less of each other.
“It’s been a big shift for us, adjusting to that and finding a rhythm,” says Mehmood. “Because we were so close every day, working in the same branch, we would see each other a lot more often.
“There’s a lot you can do together, but when you’re split in each branch, it makes things a lot harder in managing the pharmacy, making sure patients are being taken care of and ensuring all day-to-day tasks are being done. Slowly but surely, we’re getting there.”
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Diab says working closely together at Bruntsfield was “a big reason” why they made so much progress with Bruntsfield.
“We regularly discuss what is the best setup in each branch and where we should be committing our time and focus,” he says.
“Our expectation of how quickly we can turn things around at Forrest, we’ve adjusted that, but we’re doing everything we can to see real progress in a relatively short period of time.”
Full-circle moment
The pair were previously announced as one of C+D’s inaugural The Pills award winners in 2025, before winning Community Pharmacist of the Year at the 2025 C+D Awards.
But despite the accolades and their impressive growth as pharmacy owners, they’ve made sure to take big steps only when it’s right for them.
“We were very selective in the pharmacies we were interested in,” reveals Mehmood. “Over the past few years, we’ve had a number of pharmacies offered to us on sale and we’ve turned them away, because we focused our time and attention on Bruntsfield.”
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“We have high standards and we don’t want those to drop,” says Diab. “If you are taking that next step, be certain taking that is not going to have a negative impact on your existing business.”
For other young pharmacists and aspiring pharmacy owners, he suggests focusing on one pharmacy operating well, rather than taking on more pharmacies than you can manage.
“Don’t try and expand too quickly,” he warns. “After your first pharmacy, really focus on building that and get the most out of it that you’re offering.
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“That’s what we aimed for. When you feel the time is right, you can take that step to expand.
“In our case, it wasn’t something we were hyper-fixated on, because if we took that step too early, that can cause challenges and we might not have been ready for that.”
And buying Forrest has ended up being a full-circle moment for Diab.
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“One of the owners of Right Medicine is Mike, and he gave a presentation while I was at university about owning a pharmacy,” he says.
“I remember approaching him at the end of that presentation, and asking him, ‘I would like to own a pharmacy one day, what would you suggest I do?’
“He said ‘get familiar with profit and loss accounts’. I didn’t know what they were at the time - but who knew years later, we would be buying a pharmacy from him.”
The C+D Pharmacy Team of the Year Award 2026 was sponsored by RxBridge.
