Allied Pharmacies is closing one of its pharmacies after just six months of trading following “extremely limited” use of its services.
In a stakeholder briefing sent last week, NHS Somerset integrated care board (ICB) confirmed that the Allied Pharmacy in Minehead had announced its “intention to stop providing pharmaceutical services in the town” and said the branch will close on July 1.
It comes after the company’s CEO told C+D in February that it “will not close any” of the ex-Jhoots pharmacies it had purchased last year.
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Allied Pharmacy took the Minehead branch over from Jhoots last November and relocated the pharmacy from its Townsend Road premises to Friday Street in Minehead.
Managing director Suhail Sharief told C+D this week that the pharmacy had seen “extremely low volumes of prescriptions”, at a monthly average of roughly 300 items, with “only around 50 to 60 patients” using the pharmacy each month.
Sharief said “no one was interested in taking over” the pharmacy and noted that the surrounding area “seems to have sufficient provisions very close by”.
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He added that no staff will lose their jobs as they have accepted positions at alternative Allied sites - and said there are “no plans” to close any other branches.
Meanwhile, NHS Somerset place director David McClay said NHS activity at Allied’s Minehead branch was “very limited” and there are three other pharmacies in the town “who continue to provide a wide range of services to local people”.
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C+D first reported on Allied Pharmacies taking over branches from the failing Jhoots chain in November, with the company’s CEO later revealing in an exclusive interview that it went into the deal “blind”.
The five brothers running the independent chain also spoke to C+D in February about the challenges of absorbing 129 ex-Jhoots branches into their estate, as well as their strategy going forward.
