Forty-eight in-store pharmacies, currently operated as concessions
within Adsa superstores by Moss Pharmacy, are to be acquired by Asda from Alliance
Unichem Plc in a deal worth £100m over the next two years.
The pharmacies, and their associated National Health Service dispensing contracts,
will be transferred to Asda ownership by April, 2001, the companies announced
on September 20. In addition, 463 Moss employees, including pharmacists, will
transfer employment to Asda.
As part of the deal, Asda’s pharmacies will receive their health care products
from Unichem Ltd.
The deal will treble the number of pharmacies in the Asda chain to 72, with
four more in-store pharmacies planned to open before the end of the year. A
further 28 of Asda’s 240 superstores have in-store concessions run by independent
pharmacies.
Mr John Evans (superintendent pharmacist, Asda) said that feedback from customers
showed that a pharmacy with a NHS contact was “the most valuable complementary
service which we can offer them within our stores”. The company’s
aim was to have a pharmacy contract for each of its stores and the deal was
a basis for expansion.
Mr Barry Andrews (retail director, Alliance Unichem) said that the deal would
allow Moss to concentrate on its core activity of local community pharmacy.