Medical firm snaps up online healthcare business

Healthcare 21, headquartered in Leeds, has bought healthcare e-commerce business Medscope, boosting its online and e-commerce offer.

This latest acquisition forms part of an ambitious growth strategy that will see HC21 Group exceed 70m euros sales in 2017 as it expands its operations into multiple sales platforms, both in e-commerce and traditional sales forces across Germany, Austria, Ireland and the UK.

This comes on the back of  the Leeds-based distributor being approached by Bosch earlier this year to distribute its first consumer health device used by asthma patients,

Medscope operates two websites selling a range of medical devices and healthcare products predominantly into the primary care sector with customers that include GPs, GP practices, care homes, industry workplaces, emergency services, hospitals and patients.

David Plotts, business development director for HC21, said: “As an ambitious organisation we are looking to work with our partners to further expand into primary healthcare through the internet and e-commerce. With Medscope, which operates two successful e-commerce websites, predominantly serving the primary care sector and possessing an already strong presence on Amazon, we are confident that this acquisition is a significant step to achieving that.

“We are looking to improve the buying process for both Healthcare Professionals in the NHS who are constantly under time and budget constraints as well as making healthcare more accessible for the increasingly knowledgeable end user who is looking for more autonomy over their healthcare.

“By providing a digital based service with an extremely knowledgeable customer service and sales team, we will decrease the purchasing time and costs involved whilst maintaining our established customer relationships and high levels of personalised service.”