EXCLUSIVE

Rebranding the former Co-operative Pharmacy branches is the top priority for the business, C+D has learned.

The pharmacy business, which relaunched under the brand ‘Well’ last week, had earmarked £20 million to rebrand its 780 branches this year, CEO John Nuttall told C+D.
 
The first rebranded stores would “go live” in the middle of March, with the whole programme expected to be completed by the end of September, Mr Nuttall said on the day of the launch (February 10).
 
It had taken the business “almost a year” to create the Well brand in collaboration with advertising agency Langland, he said. The business had undertaken “lots of research” with consumers and colleagues before it settled on a brand that “best fit” its strategy, he stressed.
 
Mr Nuttall said the rebrand was taking place as the business “simultaneously” separated itself from the Co-operative Group. “At the moment we are using some of their systems – we can’t start a new IT system on day one,” he said.

This year’s rebrand would be funded by a portion of the first of five annual £40m investments from owner Bestway, which bought the pharmacy chain in October. C+D revealed last year that Bestway planned to open more branches, and Mr Nuttall confirmed last week that the business had already acquired a “small chain of pharmacies” in the south of England.