Pearl Chemist has seen its pre-tax losses increase by some 272%, rising from £290,000 in 2023 to £1.1 million in 2024, company accounts for the year ending October 31 2024 revealed.
Published on Companies House earlier this month (August 4), the document also showed that the southwest-London-based chain’s turnover rose from £47.9m in 2023 to £61.2 in 2024 – a 28% increase.
Directors said that “while gross profit margin declined slightly due to inflationary pressures and changes in product mix, the company maintained profitability and operational efficiency”.
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The pharmacy’s “future focus” should be on “maintaining growth while improving operational efficiency to protect margins”, they added.
“The UK pharmacy sector continues to present opportunities, supported by increasing demand for prescription dispensing, an ageing population and government strategies aimed at strengthening the role of community pharmacies,” the document said.
“These efforts are particularly focused on easing pressure on the NHS by broadening pharmacy services in the community,” it added.
“Recurring customers”
The company places “patients at the centre of decision-making”, which has contributed to “a high proportion of recurring customers”, it said in the filing, adding that repeat prescriptions accounted for “approximately 70% of the group’s dispensing activity”.
It noted that the number of items dispensed increased by 23% from the previous year, rising from 2.3m items in 2023 to 2.8m in 2024.
And the cost of sales rose from £36m in 2023 to £47m in 2024 – an increase of 32%.
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The document highlighted that some of the company’s “principal risks and uncertainties” for the year include “delays in the supply of pharmaceutical products” affecting “service delivery”.
It also noted that “shortages in qualified pharmacy staff could increase wage pressure and impact operational efficiency” and that “inflationary pressures and rising costs and services could compress margins”.
As of October 31 last year, family-run Pearl Chemist operated 27 pharmacies across “southwest London and the Surrey borders”, the document said.
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Since then, “two additional pharmacies have been acquired, [of which] the combined consideration for these acquisitions was £3.4m”, it added.
It comes after the pharmacy chain saw its pre-tax profits reduce significantly the year before, down from a profit of over £800,000 in 2022 to a loss of almost £290,000 in 2023.
It last year told C+D that it was “lucky” to benefit from a “very solid financial family background” left as a legacy, placing “fast-growing” Pearl Chemist in “a different space” to many other contractors.
