Independent chain: Buying 11 Lloydspharmacies ‘made financial sense’
A family-run chain has bought 11 Lloydspharmacy branches branded "commercially unviable", claiming the finances do "make sense".
Allied Pharmacy, a chain of 35 pharmacies based in St Helens in Merseyside, has bought 10 Lloydspharmacy stores – and is in the process of buying another, its director Suhaib Abdullah told C+D.
The 11 pharmacies are among the 190 “commercially unviable” Lloydspharmacy branches in England where parent company Celesio UK announced in October it will cease trading.
C+D has now confirmed the location of 47 of these pharmacies (see map below). The multiple declined to confirm the remaining 143 branches.
Mr Abdullah said buying the former Lloydspharmacy branches, in Manchester, Sheffield, Cheshire and Liverpool, as well as Kent and north Lincolnshire, “made sense geographically”.
“We’re always looking to expand… and the site[s] were suitable as regards to their location and the level of services provided,” Mr Abdullah told C+D on Monday (February 26).
He said the chain – which he runs with his brother and sister – plans to turn around the pharmacies' financial fortunes by “looking to push existing commissioned services…such as weight management services”.
“We look at where we can improve things and how,” adding: “At the end of the day the figures need to make sense.”
“We can dedicate time to what we do, combining expertise and experience. Because we are a family-run company, we can make decisions faster and implement them more quickly”, he told C+D.
Where else is Lloydspharmacy ceasing trading?
You can use C+D's map to view the location of all of the Lloydspharmacy branches so far confirmed for closure or sale.
Branches confirmed for closure are marked in purple, while those up for sale are marked in blue. The branches that have been sold are marked in orange.
This map is live, and will be updated as C+D confirms the locations of further affected Lloydspharmacy branches.
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