Well Pharmacy saw pre-tax losses of £20.75m in the year to June 30, company accounts published this week have revealed.
According to the filing by Bestway National Chemists, the registered name for the pharmacy chain, pre-tax losses grew by £6.85m compared to the £13.9m reported the previous year.
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The company also reported an operating loss of £18.4m, some £8.1m higher than the year before.
This is despite revenue growing from £728m to £736m, while sales rose from £499m to £512m.
The filing also showed that Well Pharmacy cut several of its branches over the reporting period, with the number of pharmacies operated by the company falling from 733 to 715.
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The company’s directors said “further pharmacies have been identified as non-core to the operational criteria of the business”, and it has “initiated a programme of disposals to new and existing operators through a competitive tender process”.
Meanwhile, prescription volumes declined by more than a million items, dropping from 74 million the previous year to 72.9 million as of last June.
“Challenging year”
The directors of Bestway National Chemists said it “was a challenging year for the business” and the community pharmacy sector “remains under significant financial pressure”.
“Whilst increases in funding from April 2025 were announced, this came out after a period of five years’ flat funding,” they added.
“Despite the ongoing funding challenges facing pharmacies, we continue to invest in our sector, showing our commitment to pharmacy and offering accessible healthcare services to local communities.”
“Still more to do”
Bestway Health CEO Greg Pateras commented that the business “made progress, growing revenue despite disposing of a number of stores”.
“Losses improved year-on-year, but the fact that the business still made a loss reflects the inadequacy of the funding increase in the year, given the increases to national insurance, living wage and other costs,” he added.
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Pateras said “there is still more to do”, but the actions taken by the company over the past year - such as “investing in digital capability, modernising [its] store estate and improving [its] supply chain” - are “helping to put the business on a stronger footing”.
“We are seeing the benefits of these changes come through and are confident in the trajectory we are now on.”
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It comes after Pharmacy2U in January reported that its pre-tax losses increased by 68% for the year ending March 31, 2025.
The company said its losses sat at £5.7m at the end of the 2024/25 tax year, compared to £3.4m the year before - representing a profit decline of more than £2.3m.
