Community pharmacy acquired by its manager
A Leicester pharmacy renowned for the friendliness of its staff has been acquired by its manager.
Aylestone Pharmacy – formerly Jhoots Pharmacy – is now the property of Shahid Shaikh, who has overseen the business for four years.
First-time buyer Shaikh completed the purchase with help from Christie Finance.
The pharmacy is ideally located opposite a GP surgery within half a mile of two doctors’ surgeries.
Shaikh, who will continue to run the pharmacy with his wife Zainab, intends to “bring out the full potential of the business” by offering additional products and services.
He said: “Being first-time buyers, we were quite nervous about the whole process and realised that we would need expert advice to find solutions for this project. It was always a dream to own the pharmacy, something that had been an ambition for many years. We finally had the opportunity to make it a reality.
“Having worked for Jhoots Pharmacy, I got to know the customers, so it felt very special to find a business that also felt like home. In the future, we plan to introduce new initiatives and services.”
David Ward, senior director at Christie Finance, added: “It’s really pleasing to be able to assist Shahid in purchasing the business which he has run as the manager for the past four years. He knows the pharmacy and the patients and is now able to expand the business and run it how he wants to run it. Half of our job is to arrange the finance. The other half is to help with issues that crop up in the legal process, which is precisely what happened here – but we were able to help resolve these and get the purchase over the line.”
