Well snaps up South West pharmacy chain
WELL, the Manchester pharmacy chain, has made its first steps on the aquisition trail since its new brand launch.
The company -previously the Co-operative Pharmacy – has snapped-up Care4u Pharmac, a community pharmacy chain of seven branches in South Devon.
The purchase is part of a £200m five-year expansion plan announced by Well last month, funded by new owner Bestway Group.
Care4u pharmacy employs around 70 people at pharmacies located in Brixham, Teignmouth (2), Paignton (2), Kingskerswell and Torquay. In the year to March 2014 it had revenues of £8m.
The pharmacies will continue to operate under the Care4u brand in the interim, with a refurbishment and rebrand to Well, set to take place within the next 12 months. No branches will close following the acquisition.
John Nuttall, CEO of Well, said: “The vision and values of Care4u match ours, so they are a perfect fit for Well. They are a highly respected pharmacy chain within the South Devon community, known for its passion for providing excellent customer service. We share that passion at Well and pride ourselves on providing personalised healthcare and wellbeing in the heart of local communities.
“Community pharmacies can play a key role in relieving pressure on key NHS services and we are committed to investing £200m over the next five years to grow our business.”
As demand grows, due to factors such as increasing population size and longer life expectancy, Well aims to increase customer numbers and grow current annual revenues from £750m to £1bn by 2019.
The three former directors of Care4u, Kevin Muckian, Mark Healey and Martin Frankland, said: “Care4u Pharmacy is a very special business and it was a very difficult decision for us to sell, but it was important to us that we were handing the business over to a company who we could trust and shares our values.”
KPMG and law firm Weightmans, advised Well on the acquisition, along with Pharmacy Advice, Consultancy and Sales (PACS) which acted on behalf of Care4u.
