The running of a Devon Superdrug premise has been taken over by Jhoots Pharmacy, Superdrug yesterday (May 6) revealed to C+D.
“Superdrug Newton Abbot closed due to the pharmacy licence being sold to new owners”, the health and beauty giant told C+D.
It added that the Superdrug Newton Abbot branch‘s last trading date will be May 10.
Read more: Jhoots: Patients redirected as script numbers plummet
“Supporting people’s healthcare needs is always our priority and our pharmacy team proactively informed patients who came into the Newton Abbot pharmacy of this change,” Superdrug said.
“Customers can continue to shop our main healthcare ranges in our high street store,” it added.
“No other stores are in the process of being taken over by Jhoots,” Superdrug said.
Bailiff bother
The news comes as a Jhoots Pharmacy in Cottingham, Yorkshire, was last month repossessed by bailiffs.
A notice on the door of the premises said that “repossession of the…premises/land was secured as a result of [the tenant’s] failure to pay the rent”.
Read more: Jhoots Pharmacy branch receives second bailiff visit in six months
And in October, another Jhoots Pharmacy in Rainham, Kent, received a second bailiff visit just six months after it was repossessed by bailiffs for the first time.
The second repossession took place after the pharmacy moved from an ex-Lloydspharmacy to a premise previously own by Boots, the local pharmaceutical committee (LPC) told C+D at the time.
Jhoots drama
Meanwhile, an integrated care board (ICB) and GP surgery last month issued warnings to patients after unstaffed Jhoots pharmacies were unable to dispense their medication.
At the time, an anonymous Jhoots staff member told C+D that the number of items dispensed from their pharmacy has plummeted to zero.
“The thing that I can’t understand is why did [Jhoots] take [the pharmacy] over if they’re not going to run it as a pharmacy, because it’s just not being run as a pharmacy,” they said.
Read more: Jhooty and the GPs: Employee pins miscarriage on pay stress as staff owed thousands
In March, Jhoots Pharmacy’s financial statements revealed that the company’s shareholder funds took a tumble between 2023 and 2024.
The papers also showed that the company is due to pay creditors back an increasing amount of cash over the next year.
And in February, C+D revealed that Jhoots Chemist Limited’s sole owner Sarbjit Singh Jhooty was embroiled in a pay dispute, the stress of which led one pharmacy staff member to miscarry, she claimed.
Read more: Jhoots accounts: Shareholder funds tumble while debts soar
A group of 14 locum pharmacists working for Jhoots told C+D that the branches in question were run by SD Pharmacy - a company owned by “a group of doctors” - when they stopped receiving payment in July 2024.
Jhoots director Sarbjit Jhooty took over SD Pharmacy in September 2024 and since then, another four employees at the pharmacies began to have issues receiving wages, sick pay and maternity pay.
At the time, Jhoots said that Jhooty took over the company to secure “the longevity of the pharmacies” but that the “full scale of the debts was not clear” and “the monies owed to pharmacists by SD Pharmacy were for shifts completed prior to [his] ownership”.
Read more: Jhoots Pharmacy disposing of ‘existing branches’ amid £350k annual loss
The issues came after C+D revealed in January that Jhoots pharmacy staff in Hull handed in their notice after a missed January pay-day left them facing eviction and unable to “afford school lunches”.
A week on from pay-day, an anonymous staff member told C+D that they knew of “four stores minimum” in their area that hadn’t received any payment since before Christmas.
And in January, Holsworthy’s town mayor raised the alarm on the “latest issues” at the local Jhoots pharmacy branch, which saw the town left without its pharmacy services.
The mayor said that the problems included “late payment of wages to staff and no on-site pharmacist”.
