Earlier this month, Allied Pharmacies announced that it had “taken over the management of 60 Jhoots pharmacies” across England, with the “majority” of the locations “temporarily closed”.
Now, the company’s chief executive has revealed in an exclusive interview that it went into the deal “blind” and “not knowing how many” of the branches it will be able to get back up and running.
Read more: Jhoots: Allied to settle unpaid staff wages ‘in full’ amid takeover
Chief executive Suhaib Abdullah – who is one of five pharmacist brothers running the group - last week (November 21) told C+D that the acquisition “was a big risk” and that he doesn’t yet know whether he secured a good deal.
“To be honest, we’ve gone into it blind really, not knowing how many we will open…Up until now, we don’t know in terms of the viability and whether it was a good deal or not,” he said.
“Give it 12 months and I might be able to tell you,” he added.
“Race against time”
Allied Pharmacies’ takeover follows various businesses under the Jhoots Pharmacy brand coming under fire for a range of issues over several months.
Abdullah said that when it comes to rebuilding trust with pharmacy staff and the community, “actions speak louder than words” and his priority is to reopen and “start trading in as many of [the branches] as possible”.
He added that the company is in “a race against time” as some branches have been closed “for a number of months” and are now at risk of losing their NHS contracts.
Read more: Exclusive: Unpaid Jhoots locum fees surpass £1m
A representative for Allied Pharmacies confirmed to C+D that these branches are among the more than 20 that integrated care boards (ICBs) are working to remove from the pharmaceutical list - a development revealed by pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock earlier this month.
But the company has met with the ICBs, which are taking the “significant change in control and management” of the pharmacies “into account”, they added.
Read more: Revealed: The 60 Jhoots locations taken over by Allied Pharmacies
At the time of the interview - two weeks after the takeover was announced - Abdullah said that 33 of the branches taken over by Allied Pharmacies were “open and trading”, but there were 19 premises that the company was still “trying to get access to”.
“The challenge we’ve taken on is bigger than we thought when we inherited it, but to be honest…we’ve done a lot better than we thought we would do,” he added.
Not “purely financial”
Abdullah told C+D that while the company “[loves] a challenge”, its decision to take over the Jhoots branches was not “purely financial”.
He said that “there has been a lot of negative media” surrounding Jhoots pharmacies, and that “one of the reasons” Allied Pharmacies took the branches on was “to improve [its own] reputation as a company” and “as a pharmacy”.
“We would like to go in and it’s in the media saying, ‘Allied saved this particular group’ - we thought it’s a good way to really showcase our group, that we can take a challenge like this on, even if financially it wasn’t viable,” he added.
Read more: Revealed: Everything we know about action against Jhoots
Abdullah said that Allied Pharmacies is “quite capable” of getting the locations back up and running, having previously purchased 11 “commercially unviable” Lloydspharmacy branches back in 2018.
“It’s not something we haven’t done,” he said, adding that taking over the Lloydspharmacy branches was a “bigger challenge” than the one they are currently facing.
“We’re feeling very, very confident,” he told C+D.
“Independent businesses”
There are various businesses operating under the Jhoots Pharmacy brand name.
A representative for two of these previously told C+D that the numerous allegations of financial mismanagement and the Allied Pharmacies takeover do not relate to the 21 Jhoots pharmacies under Manjit Jhooty’s ownership and operation.
Read more: DH working to ‘resolve’ Jhoots situation ‘as quickly as possible’
“There is no legal, financial or governance connection between my companies and those operated by Sarbjit Jhooty - we are independent businesses and share only the Jhoots Pharmacy brand name,” he said at the time.
“The pharmacies that my businesses operate are all fully solvent, functional and continue to provide important services and professional support to their local communities and that is not going to change,” he added.
It comes after Allied Pharmacies last week revealed that it will pay off former Jhoots staff’s unpaid wages “in full” following its takeover of a number of the chain’s branches – with the outstanding wages of 37 staff paid as of Friday last week.
Read more: Exclusive: Unpaid locums take legal action against Jhoots pharmacies
Abdullah told C+D at the time that the company was “unaware of how many staff are affected” and was awaiting this information from administrators but that those who contact Allied Pharmacies will have their unpaid wages settled the “same day”.
Locum staff owed fees by Jhoots branches will not be paid by Allied Pharmacies and “must contact [the] liquidators”, he added.
Meanwhile, C+D yesterday revealed that the unpaid fees owed to locum pharmacists by Jhoots pharmacies has now surpassed £1 million.
