The Day Lewis pharmacy chain, headed by the current National Pharmaceutical Association chairman, Kirit Patel, is expanding along the east and south coasts of England. The Journal visited Sevenoaks, Kent, recently to speak to Mr Patel
The Day Lewis pharmacy chain was granted the Investor in People award on January 21 following an inspection just before Christmas last year. The company is proud of this award, which highlights its commitment to staff training and development, but it found that it had to make a number of organisational changes in order to achieve it.
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The first Day Lewis pharmacy, at Sevenoaks, Kent, was named in honour of the former Poet Laureate, Cecil Day-Lewis |
The Day Lewis chain has recently acquired 16 pharmacies, with the purchases being agreed early in January. The largest acquisition was nine pharmacies belonging to the One Stop convenience store chain. The pharmacies are situated along the south coast from Burgess Hill to Southampton.
Earlier acquisitions had seen the Day Lewis group expanding through East Anglia up to Great Yarmouth. This has been bolstered by the purchase of three Nicholas Wade pharmacies from Mr Nicholas Wood, a former President of the Society, in Brentford and Ilford, Essex. In addition, four pharmacies have been acquired from independent owners at Surbiton, New Cross, Hastings and Hove.
In making these purchases, the group has achieved its objective of having 50 pharmacies by the end of 2000, having now reached 56 pharmacies and four opticians. The new target is 75 by the end of 2002.
Kirit Patel first came to the United Kingdom in 1967 when his father sent him to boarding school at Truro, Cornwall. He enjoyed the relaxed rural lifestyle of Cornwall, which, he says, was similar to that in his home town, Kisumu, in Kenya, east Africa. He went on to study at the Portsmouth school of pharmacy, attracted by its emphasis on the business aspects of pharmacy and by its proximity to Cornwall.
"Professor Jack Morrison taught business administration to students on the ordinary degree course and this was a great influence on me. By the time I left Portsmouth, I could read a balance sheet and prepare my own cashflow analysis. This kind of teaching is very poor in schools of pharmacy today and I believe that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society needs to do something about it."
Mr Patel bought his first business in May, 1975, at Southborough, Kent, with his former employer acting as guarantor.
The first Day Lewis pharmacy, at Sevenoaks, Kent, was the fourth acquired by Mr Patel. It was originally owned by a pharmacist who was the brother-in-law of Cecil Day-Lewis (Poet Laureate and grandfather of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis) and named after him and his sister.
Mr Patel said that at the time it was his policy to retain the existing trading names of any businesses which he acquired. The move to having a group corporate identity was made three years ago around the time that the company started working for the Investor in People award. The pharmacies were rebranded and they now carry double-barrelled names, such as Day Lewis Greens, reflecting their former titles.
By 1988, the Day Lewis chain had grown to 32 pharmacies, but, with a recession looming, another critical point was reached as Mr Patel decided to put into practice what he had learnt by studying for a master of business administration degree.
"One of the MBA modules asked us to examine businesses under both pessimistic and optimistic future scenarios. When I looked at my own business it became obvious that it would not survive for a day if interest rates went up. I felt that the looming recession was going to be a long one, so I started to sell my pharmacies at a good profit. I reduced the chain from 32 to eight and became cash rich. The second time around, starting in 1994, I worked with a much flatter structure. However, by the time the group reached 20 pharmacies we started having problems."
At this point, LMQ, a firm of business consultants, was brought in to establish clearer management and training structures. Staff meetings are now an important part of the way in which the Day Lewis chain operates. Each branch has a meeting for all staff every three months, minutes of which are sent to head office. The senior management team meets once a month, often at Mr Patel's house. There is also an annual training weekend attended by all pharmacy managers and shop co-ordinators (the most senior pharmacy assistants).
All members of staff have a red folder containing details of the company's mission statement, its business objectives, their job description, six-monthly appraisal reports, branch meeting minutes and training given or received. "Staff know where to look for the information they need."
There is also a branch training and procedure manual, written in-house, which covers "everything anyone needs to know about working with us".
Mr Patel says that e-commerce will change the nature of retailing beyond recognition within seven years. However, he is against selling medicines over the internet.
"Medicines are special. We are fortunate in the UK in having a pharmacy only (P) medicine category. If we do things which go against the idea of supervised P medicine sales then that will lead to pressure from supermarkets to look again at the idea of P medicines. If that category goes then many pharmacies will not survive. I am glad that the Society's Council has come up with a strong ruling on this."