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business success in association with
Pharmacy expansion has prescription for success
In the face of competition from high street giants and supermarkets, Everetts Pharmacy is proud of its independence and reputation for personalised service
pharmacies are a very, very important aspect of our society.“
Everetts Pharmacy was founded in the mid- 1920s after the original H J Everett, a captain in the First World War, began work as a pharmacist and opened the doors for the first time at premises in Bridge Road, Park Gate, where today the pharmacy still has its head office.
Colin Baker joined the business in 1962 when there were just two pharmacies, taking over from the founder as he prepared to retire to pursue his hobby of growing prize-winning freesias.
Since then, he admits that his expansion programme has never followed a defined plan. Instead he prefers to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, often relying on word of mouth and the excellent networking skills of his team to know when a local pharmacist is due to retire, or a business owned by one of the big chains is about to come onto the market.
The acquisition and subsequent redevelopment of the St Luke’s Pharmacy came from such a conversation.
Declaring the new St Lukes Pharmacy formally open is Southampton Football Club captain Adam Lallana (centre). With him are the St Luke’s Pharmacy team
Now with a chain of pharmacies along the south coast and employing some 145 people, the group has grown steadily under the guiding hand of managing director Colin Baker and his team.
Recently it has opened branches number 10 and 11 – St Luke’s Pharmacy in Hedge End, near Southampton, and Everetts Pharmacy at Horndean, Waterlooville.
Both ventures required funding for new buildings and the expansion programme has been made possible with the support of the corporate banking team at Barclays, led by Howard Ellard, relationship director Solent and Dorset.
“This was the first time we’ve ever had external funding. We’ve never had the need for a loan before, but on this occasion we were much more involved because of the new buildings,“ said Colin Baker.
“These are two really good businesses and we approached the bank because we required additional funding for the capital building projects. Barclays has been our bank for many years and it has always been very understanding and co-operative. Howard was very helpful and always took an extremely positive view of the way the bank could support us, while our accountants, Menzies, were very helpful in putting the business plan together to show future projections for the business in years to come.“
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Speaking about working with the Everetts Pharmacy team, Ellard said: “It’s been a delight in working with a longstanding company with such strong local links and assisting them to develop and grow.“
And his views were echoed by John Foundling, corporate finance director, Menzies Corporate Finance, who commented: “We were delighted that we had the opportunity to add-value working alongside Colin and his team, building the business plan and structuring the funding with Barclays – what a great business he has.“
The overall expansion programme has taken nearly two years to complete, allowing Everetts Pharmacy to move into areas where the local population is continuing to grow, while Colin Baker continues to be on the lookout for other new ventures.
“In business you can never stand still,“ he said. “We have invested a lot of money in growing our chain of pharmacies and it’s really important to keep revitalising ourselves. No business is foolproof and we are very aware of the competition, but we believe people really appreciate having a dedicated local pharmacy in their own locality.
“We are often close to doctors’ surgeries, so we know the doctors and the support team and we know the local people. Supermarket pharmacies can’t possibly have the personal involvement in the community that local pharmacies have. I believe independent
“We knew the person there very well and they suggested we should look at buying the business; the next minute we were involved with it and the project was going ahead with help from the bank,“ he said.
Like many businesses today, Everetts Pharmacy has expanded outside its traditional medicine and dispensing remit and, depending on the size of the store, sells a range of other items too. Additional pharmacy services, such as bone density scanning, allergy testing and a stop smoking service are also available.
Details: Colin Baker 01489-885305
admin@everettspharmacy.co.uk www.everettspharmacy.co.uk
Howard Ellard 07775-548398
howard.ellard@barclays.com www.barclays.com/corporatebanking
The views expressed in this article are the views of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Barclays Bank PLC Group nor should they be taken as statements of policy or intent of the Barclays Bank PLC Group. The Barclays Bank PLC Group takes no responsibility for the veracity of information contained in the third part guides or articles and no warranties or undertakings of any kind, whether express or implied, regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information given. The Barclays Bank PLC Group takes no liability for the impact of any decisions made based on information contained and views expressed.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2013
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