A Littlehampton branch of Kamsons Pharmacy has been forced to relocate to a nearby branch after a confused motorist crashed their car into its building, a Kamsons spokesperson revealed last week (June 7).

In the early afternoon of May 23, a driver in the Fitzalan Surgery car park “smashed into the wall of the surgery” when they mistook their accelerator for their brake, they said.

The crash “severely” damaged the Kamsons Pharmacy in the building and police and firefighters on the scene evacuated the pharmacy as it had been “deemed unsafe”, they added.

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Photos provided by Kamsons show the brick wall warped from the collision.

The pharmacy’s staff relocated to a nearby Kamsons branch on Littlehampton High Street, that was “fortunately…recently enlarged and refitted”, the spokesperson told C+D.

The Littlehampton High Street branch had been helping the displaced patients in the fortnight since the accident, but on June 10 a “temporary pharmacy” opened instead at the “Sweet Dreams and Bubbles shop” opposite it on the high street, they added.

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Kamsons Pharmacy operations manager and senior pharmacist Paul Antenen said that it had been “a difficult fortnight for our pharmacy teams in Littlehampton”.

Antenen added that staff had done “an amazing job” in an “emergency situation”, adding his thanks for the battered pharmacy’s patients’ patience.

Coming crash?

It comes as C+D this week reported that the Kamsons Pharmacy group, which numbers 85 pharmacies, saw its profits drop to £2.8m in the 2023 financial year despite an uplift in sales revenue, according to its latest financial documents.

Kamsons professional development manager Mark Donaghy told C+D that it is “fundamentally wrong” that its margins are “under such significant pressure” as he called for an “urgent uplift in investment” once a new government is formed after the July 4 general election.

The Sussex-based family-owned pharmacy chain bought eight pharmacies during the 2023 financial year, including five Lloydspharmacy branches in April 2023.

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Kamsons Pharmacy director Bharat Chotai said at the time that the multiple was “delighted to welcome these new pharmacies to [its] group”.

“These are difficult financial times for community pharmacy but we have confidence that we can develop these new branches, local to us, with the support of our excellent staff,” he added.