Some 68% of UK pharmacy owners want to buy or sell in 2025, according to Christie & Co’s 2025 business outlook report published today (January 16).
The figure combines 30% looking to buy, 34% looking to sell, and 4% looking to buy and sell.
Read more: January 2025 market update: First-time pharmacy buyers rocket as GP investors enter the market
Christie also shared that 50% felt “negative” about the upcoming year in pharmacy, and only 22% felt “positive”, which the report attributed to “uncertainty around funding” in the sector.
“It’s likely that market appetite in England will be tempered by the outcome of the much-needed funding settlement negotiations,” said Christie & Co’s head of pharmacy Jonathan Board.
A conclusion to negotiations would “hopefully provide some certainty for all contractors moving forwards and allow them to plan and invest accordingly,” he added.
Pricing and transactional activity
The report says in the 12 months to the end of November 2024, the price per UK pharmacy business sold by Christie & Co had an average decrease of 6.3%.
It explained the negative price movement “was a product of the high numbers of smaller pharmacies and corporate disposals sold in the first half of the year”.
But it added that “encouragingly” the last quarter saw a “vast increase” in the “average value of the pharmacies being added” in the offers made and deals being accepted. It predicted this would “positively impact our price index in 2025”.
It also revealed for 2024, the asking price achieved on a pharmacy averaged 91%, representing a decrease on 2023, when offers accepted averaged 2.5% above the asking price.
Christie & Co reported “a record year for transactional activity” as it completed 222 UK pharmacy sales in 2024, more than double in the previous year.
Read more: Market round-up as 67 year old family-owned community pharmacy sold
36% of the sales were “corporate disposals” which it expects to “subside in 2025 and be replaced with an increasing volume of independent sales”.
Some 8% of acquisitions were completed by large groups and corporate operators.
First-time buyers were down from 45% in 2023, but they remained the most active, delivering 33% of sales in 2024. The report said pharmacies on the market continued to generate “significant interest from buyers” despite “ongoing operational challenges and cost pressures”.
Predictions
Looking ahead to 2025, Christie & Co predicts:
- Continued improvement seen in Q4 of 2024 as corporate disposal processes subside.
- Improved appetite from group operators as some cost pressures stabilise.
- Renewed focus on the sector from private equity.
- Ongoing cost challenges in the market, none more so than the National Living Wage increase from April 2025.
It comes as a new report last week (January 9) revealed first-time buyers “dominated” the market after completing 53% of all pharmacy sales through Hutchings Consultants across England, Scotland and Wales in 2024, with GP investors starting to enter the market.
Read more: Podcast: Christie & Co Annual Market Review 2024
C+D also reported that 1,212 pharmacies were bought in the UK from July 2023 to June 2024, up 50% in 2023 according to chartered accountants UHY Hacker Young (UHY).
Its research also estimates a “10% decrease in Gross Profits per pharmacy, now down to £382,468 per year from £419,598” which is “a hit of approximately £500m” to community pharmacy profits compared to the previous year.
