‘A lot’ of ex-Lloydspharmacy branches facing ‘serious problems’, IPA warns

The Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) has warned that many of the pharmacies that were formerly part of the Lloydspharmacy estate are facing difficulties.

The DH is "getting very alarmed that you cannot choose where closures happen”

Pharmacy owner and IPA board member Ian Strachan has said that “a lot” of former Lloydspharmacy branches that were acquired by other operators are facing “serious problems”.

Lloydspharmacy was the second largest multiple in the UK as recently as March 2023 before the sale of all its high street branches was exclusively revealed by C+D in November.

But speaking at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham over the weekend (October 13), Strachan said that the “jury’s still out” on whether community pharmacies are “an attractive investment” despite all these Lloydspharmacy purchases.

Read more: Revealed: Who snapped up the most Lloydspharmacy premises?

“A lot of those pharmacies that were acquired are in serious problems now, and I know that,” he told delegates.

It comes as pharmacy broker Christie & Co last week revealed “the top 10 purchasers” of Lloydspharmacy premises “over recent disposal campaigns that spanned several years”.

But it said that the “vast majority” of ex-Lloydspharmacy branches have been snapped up by “independent or small local multiple operators”, while corporate pharmacy chains purchased only 3.3% of Lloydspharmacy’s brick and mortar pharmacy premises.

Government “very alarmed”

Also speaking in the same keynote panel discussion at the conference, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison said that the government is “getting very alarmed” about pharmacy closures.

“I was in a meeting with [former pharmacy minister] Neil O’Brien when it was pointed out to him that Lloydspharmacy - the second largest chain in the country - was going bust and exiting the market, and I saw the alarm on his face,” she told delegates.

She added that the “government and the civil service absolutely have recognised that squeezing everyone has now made the whole network fragile, and they are getting very alarmed that you cannot choose where closures happen”.

Read more: Coroner: Lloydspharmacy patient dies after using husband’s ‘identical’ dosette box

“We’re like a house of cards now with potential collapse in every part of this sector - it’s not just in the multiples who consolidated, it’s everywhere now,” she said.

And she added that the government “now knows” that “we are at that tipping point” where the health secretary “may not be able to exercise” his responsibility to “ensure safety of medicine supply”.

“I think they’ve recognised it now and they’ve got to think about how to safeguard the whole network, because people rely on us every day,” she told delegates.

Lloydspharmacy latest

This summer, the former pharmacy chain’s parent company also announced plans to exit contracts at 64 pharmacy sites operated by Lloydspharmacy Healthcare Services (LP HCS Ltd).

It comes after Rowlands revealed in July that it will take over the running of five hospital pharmacies from Lloydspharmacy in December.

Read more: Lloydspharmacy confirms ‘successful sale’ of all community pharmacies

That month, C+D also revealed that former Lloydspharmacy superintendent Victoria Steele would leave her role as LP HCS Ltd’s top pharmacist and the wider Hallo Healthcare Group (HHG) “this summer”.

And in May, a fourth community pharmacy premises was repossessed by bailiffs in connection with Lloydspharmacy’s liquidation.

In January, it was revealed that the multiple entered into liquidation with almost £300 million owed to creditors.

Read more: Lloydspharmacy goes into liquidation with £293m owed to creditors

And in April, C+D revealed that the former landlord of the head office of Lloydspharmacy’s holding company was owed nearly half-a-million pounds by the company.

Meanwhile, former Sainsbury’s workers claiming enhanced redundancy from the Lloydspharmacy estate are due to have their case heard in March 2025, despite a possible victory offering “no realistic hope” of full compensation.

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Costanza Potter

Read more by Costanza Potter

Cos Potter joined C+D as its news editor in December 2022 but has been covering primary care news for over five years. After starting out at the pharmacy press in 2019, she worked at a GP title for several years before the pharmacy sector beckoned her back.

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