Cheshire-based L.Rowland and Company, which trades as Rowlands Pharmacy, suffered a £37.9m pre-tax loss for the financial year – down 86% from £271.6m in 2023 – its annual report for the year ending January 31 2024 revealed.
The report, published last week (October 30), added that the pharmacy chain’s revenue for the year was £410m – a year-on-year increase of 1% from £406m in 2023.
Read more: Rowlands sets out ‘close, merge, dispose’ strategy amid £219m loss in 2022/23
Rowlands reported that it had also cut its post-tax losses by 87% to £28.1m from the previous year, when it made a loss of £219.3m.
Some £400,000 of the loss was an “impairment” following “impairment testing…necessary due to the reduced profitability and the impact of future predicted cash flows…driven by the uncertain future of pharmacy funding”, the report said.
And it added that “the current high inflationary environment has a significant impact on costs for the company impacting profitability” but that its management “are focused on cost control to mitigate the effect as much as possible”.
37 pharmacies sold
Rowlands also announced that “24 retail pharmacies” were being “held for resale” and that its management was “committed to sell” the 24 premises in the “disposal group”.
It confirmed that the 24 pharmacies had been “disposed of post year end” and that “a further 13 retail pharmacies have been sold after January 31 2024”.
Read more: Tender triumph: Rowlands to take over five Lloydspharmacy hospital branches
But the report said that as part of Rowlands’ “estate strategy”, it acquired “34 branches that were owned by Lloyds Pharmacy Limited previously”.
It also “divested a number of pharmacies and invested in branch refurbishments”, it added.
Read more: ‘A lot’ of ex-Lloydspharmacy branches facing ‘serious problems’, IPA warns
Meanwhile, Rowlands Pharmacy’s parent company Phoenix Medical Supplies Limited reported an operating loss of £15.6m for the same financial year – a 1.6% increase from the previous year, it said.
But its annual report, published the same day, added that “the operating loss is offset by dividend income of £80m” – up from zero in 2023 – “resulting in a profit after tax of £50.8m”.
The source of the dividend remains unclear.
“Close and merge and disposal”
Last year, Rowlands Pharmacy told C+D that the “vast majority” of its £219m loss was due to “impairments” caused by “reduced profitability arising from the uncertainty of future pharmacy funding in England”.
At the time, its annual report laid out a “close and merge and disposal of branches” strategy, adding that its “estate strategy” had led to its divestment of “a number of pharmacies” over the year.
Read more: Fire-ravaged Rowlands branch opens ‘new-look premises’ after portacabin stint
In July, the company announced it would take over the running of five hospital pharmacies from Lloydspharmacy from December, in addition to the 30 Lloydspharmacy branches in Scotland that it had previously announced in May last year.
And in September, a Rowlands Pharmacy branch in Rhos on Sea reopened its doors after working from a portacabin for over three weeks due to damage caused by a fire in its original premises.
