PCT Healthcare merges with Murrays Pharmacy, taking it to 150 branches
PCT Healthcare has announced a merger with the West Midlands-based Murrays Pharmacy group, expanding its portfolio to 150 branches across the UK.
The large independent chain, which operates Peak Pharmacy branches, Tims & Parker, Manor Pharmacy, Cox & Robinson and Brennan’s pharmacies, added 25 Murrays pharmacies and 230 staff to its ranks last week (March 15), creating a portfolio of 150 branches with 1,600 staff.
Duncan Murray, the third generation of Murrays Pharmacy owners, said: “We look forward to being part of the PCT Healthcare team and feel confident they will take the business forward to the next stage of its exciting growth journey.”
Joe Cattee, director of PCT Healthcare, told C+D: “With more pharmacies and with more staff hopefully feeling empowered and supported, we can start to support patients on a wider basis and start to ensure that we’re offering a better service.”
“Family values” central to merger
Both businesses have been family-owned since they were founded. PCT will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, while Murrays, established in Tipton in 1920, turned 100 last year.
Speaking to C+D last week (March 17), Mr Cattee said it was those family values that had attracted them to Murrays.
“I think because they had the family influence within their business, [we knew] it would be a good fit for us,” he said. “We’ve known Duncan and Fay for years and know what they stand for, […] so we felt they would have similar virtues to us.”
“Hopeful” to keep as many jobs as now
Asked if the merger would lead to redundancies in duplicated roles in the two combined companies, Mr Cattee could not rule them out. However, he stressed “we’re hopeful that we can continue to support as many people as both companies do now”.
“We have to do what’s efficient for the entire business, and I think that we need to look at every department and start to determine exactly how both constituent parts work, to then sort of harmonise the process to bring things together,” Mr Cattee said.
He is “genuinely really passionate about staff”, he added, and “we should be doing as much as we can to make people feel rewarded [and] supported”.
“I genuinely believe that this merger will go a long way to protecting a lot of people’s jobs going forward,” Mr Cattee stressed.
To welcome Murrays staff into the newly combined business, Mr Cattee said he had visited and written to every branch.
Designs on making the business “as efficient as possible”
While Mr Cattee was aware of how “extremely challenging” a time it has been for the community pharmacy sector, making particular note of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current NHS funding deal, he believes the merger would hold both groups in good stead for the next five years.
“Yes, it is a challenging time, but I think the idea of a merger rather than an acquisition [means] we weren’t reliant on a lot of cash to acquire a business.”
The merger will be about “harmonising best practice” in both companies to “make our businesses as efficient as possible”, he added.
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