Bailiffs “entered the property” of a Jhoots Pharmacy in Rainham, Kent, just six months after it was repossessed by bailiffs for the first time at its former location, bailiffs yesterday (October 28) confirmed to C+D.
Earlier this month (October 16), Parkinson Bailiff Services Limited left a repossession notice on the door of a Jhoots Pharmacy branch located at 21-22 Rainham Shopping Center, a spokesperson from the bailiff service said.
Read more: Lloydspharmacy liquidation: Jhoots branch third premises to be ‘repossessed’
The notice stated that the occupant had until Wednesday October 3 to collect goods that had been left behind in the premises before the landlord could sell or dispose of them, the spokesperson confirmed.
Pharmacy staff at the branch confirmed to C+D that the premises had reopened last week (October 21) but it remains unclear how long the pharmacy was closed.
C+D approached Jhoots for comment.
Return of the repossession
In April, the same branch was handed its first notice by bailiffs for a premises that C+D understands was operating as a Lloydspharmacy until October 2023, when it was sold.
Kent local pharmaceutical committee (LPC) chief executive Mark Anyaegbuna told C+D in April that the Jhoots branch then reopened in another premises previously owned by Boots after the incident.
At the time, the branch was the third premises to be repossessed by bailiffs in connection with Lloydspharmacy’s liquidation.
Read more: Lloydspharmacy: Jhoots rent row leaves town without pharmacy ‘indefinitely’
In February, staff at Rimmington’s Pharmacy in Bradford were left baffled when they arrived at work to find “a sticker on the door saying, ‘you’ve just been repossessed’”.
The pharmacy’s owner Sajid Mahmood told C+D that he believed the repossession was the result of Lloydspharmacy - which Rimmington’s had been subletting from - not “paying [its] rent” on the property.
“We had a patient going into hospital because they didn’t get their meds on time,” he added at the time.
Read more: Pharmacy ‘repossessed’ after Lloydspharmacy lease fiasco
And the same month, C+D reported that pharmacy staff working at McKeevers Chemist in Ashton-under-Lyne were “caught up” in the liquidation of Lloydspharmacy when bailiffs broke in overnight and changed the locks – leaving it unable to open for four days.
Meanwhile in July, a Devon landlord told C+D that a town had been left with just one “tiny” pharmacy after another Jhoots branch was “evicted” from an ex-Lloydspharmacy premises for not paying rent “from day one”.
And last month, Jhoots' annual report revealed that the chain was disposing of “existing branches” amid a £350k annual loss.
