Lloydspharmacy

Lloyds Pharmacy, Garforth, Yorkshire, 2014

LloydsPharmacy is a British pharmacy company, with more than 1,600 pharmacies. It has around 17,000 staff and dispenses over 150 million prescription items annually. It is owned by the German company Celesio, which is in turn owned by the American McKesson Corporation.

Overview

LloydsPharmacy is the trading name of LloydsPharmacy Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Celesio AG (previously called GEHE AG), a leading healthcare provider with business across Europe and in Brazil.

Celesio AG purchased AAH plc (the UK’s leading pharmaceutical wholesaler) in 1995, and then in 1997, acquired Lloyds Chemists PLC, which at the time had 902 pharmacies. Together with AAH’s 350 strong Hills Pharmacy network, this took the combined group to over 1300 pharmacies. LloydsPharmacy was formed in March 1998 and has now grown to over 1500 pharmacies within the UK.

AAH is now the pharmaceutical wholesale division of Celesio in the UK.

History

Lloyds Chemist began in 1973 when Allen Lloyd purchased his first pharmacy in Polesworth, Warwickshire, England, UK. It is estimated he made a £32 million fortune from the LloydsPharmacy empire.

The head office is located at Sapphire Court in the Walsgrave Triangle Business Park in Coventry, England.

LloydsPharmacy used to broadcast a live radio station (LloydsPharmacy Live!) within its stores; presenters included ex-BBC radio broadcaster Bruno Brookes. This radio station was shut down on Wednesday 29 February 2012, to cut costs.

LloydsPharmacy is known through the strapline "healthcare for life," but has more recently adopted "how are you today?" to embody the conversational aspect of customers' interactions with pharmacists and to promote the message that pharmacists are equipped with a wealth of knowledge that can assist in the alleviation or soothing of a variety of ailments.

A close association with Diabetes UK has developed due to LloydsPharmacy completing more than 2 million [free in-pharmacy] diabetes tests so far in the UK.

Celesio is currently rolling out the LloydsPharmacy brand across its 2,200 own European pharmacies. Branches are also being transformed to reflect a new concept of pharmaceutical healthcare. The European Pharmacy Network (EPN) concept includes a central ‘Health Bar’ with touch screens for detailed product information, consultancy rooms and interactive communication technology.

As part of the EPN transformation, pharmacies offer free, enhanced services for a range of conditions including skin health and pain management. Innovative technology has also been introduced to provide customers with personalised skin health information. Many of the stores now offer a digital skin analyser along with touch-screen tablets that provide condition and product information. In the UK, around 200 Lloyds pharmacies have already implemented the new concept.

In November 2013 the Daily Telegraph reported that "The prices of more than 20,000 drugs could have been artificially inflated, with backhanders paid to chemists who agreed to sell them". In particular it was alleged that Lloyds was charging the NHS £89.50 for packets of cod liver oil, when other suppliers could provide it for £3.15. NHS Protect had mounted an investigation.^[1]

In December 2013 it was involved in a case where Quantum Pharmaceutical was fined more than £380,000 by the Office of Fair Trading over a cartel arrangement in which it carved up some of a multimillion-pound market in prescription drugs for care homes with Lloyds Pharmacy.^[2] Lloyds brought the case to the attention of the OFT so is not expected to pay a fine.

In July 2015, Lloyd's announced the purchase of all 281 Sainsbury's pharmacies for £125 million^[3] in a deal that will transfer all 2500 Sainsbury's pharmacy employees to the company. In December 2015 the sale was referred to the Competition and Markets Authority for investigation, with findings to be announced in June 2016.^[4]

See also

• List of pharmacies

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lloyds Pharmacy.

External links

• Lloyds Pharmacy