The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7174 p701-706
17 November 2001

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Community pharmacist turns to manufacturing bandages

Gill Sweeney has become a manufacturer producing elasticated tubular bandages under the Easigrip name after selling her community pharmacy in pursuit of a new challenge.

Mrs Sweeney built up a successful business in Leamington Spa, increasing the pharmacy's turnover from £200,000 to £1.1m in 13 years. Proceeds from the sale of the business were used to establish Easigrip Ltd and to purchase the industrial knitting machines used to make the bandages.

Mrs Sweeney told The Journal: "It was either restructure the pharmacy business or look for something else. I felt that there was room in the market for a new elasticated bandage. This had the advantage of not being as complicated as producing a new pharmaceutical product."

The biggest hurdle she had to jump was getting the product listed in the Drug Tariff, as without this distributors would not stock it. While she was going through the process of getting tariff approval, Mrs Sweeney turned to the export market. After exhibiting at a trade fair in Germany, she secured distribution contracts for Europe and the Middle East.

Mrs Sweeney says that her new role as a pharmacist in manufacturing means that she has to be more proactive than when she was a community pharmacist: "I have to get out and sell the product all the time. However, I am not tied to the dispensary bench all day now."

Easigrip now employs seven staff and is on target to have a turnover of £250,000 this trading year.

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