Giving your pharmacy premises a facelift

Pharmacy refits are needed to maintain sales and reputation. But how often should they be undertaken?

“I think it is important for pharmacists to revamp their premises at least every five years,” says Steve Voyse, retail services manager at Numark. He points out that a full refit is not always necessary — perhaps a couple of thousand pounds could be spent on giving certain outdated features a facelift.

For example, this can involve installing new counters, modernising flooring or lighting, replacing the ticket edges on shelving or updating the category header posters.

Changing practice

Rowlands pharmacies are refitted fully every six years, on a rolling programme that centres around giving pharmacists better access to their customers.

Kenny Black, managing director at Rowlands, believes that the pharmacist is the number one person customers want to see in the pharmacy, “which is why we took the decision to redesign our pharmacies to release the pharmacist from the dispensary in order to deliver new services”.

Rowlands was the first pharmacy group to introduce permanent consultation booths as part of the dispensing service, according to Mr Black. “The focus is face-to-face patient engagement at the point of handing out dispensed medicines while referring to the patients’ medication record on a computer screen situated in the booth. This ensures every customer sees the pharmacist.”

He adds: “The new retrieval area has reduced errors and again facilitates discussion with the patient. Retrieval units have been installed in 292 of our stores and those branches have shown double the retail growth of those without.”

Allocating space

With the UK community pharmacy contracts putting professional services at the forefront of business, the creation of private counselling areas and consultation rooms is at the heart of most refits. But what of the lost floor space?

“Where smaller pharmacies have lost space due to the inclusion of a consultation room, continental drawers in the dispensary have solved the problem,” says Mr Voyse. Such high-capacity drawers can house large volumes of pharmacy stock in an area far smaller than standard dispensary shelving, he explains.

He adds that more “switched-on” pharmacists are seeing consultation rooms as a critical part of the business, not only because of new services that can be offered, but through “the additional sales that those services are going to create within the pharmacy”.

Financing the refit

Pharmacy refits are expensive, but this need not be prohibitive. If a pharmacist does not have the money to invest in a refit upfront, he or she can enlist the help of a finance company. Pharmacy Partners is one such firm that offers financing solutions for pharmacists wanting to freshen up their premises.

Andy Harwood, relationship manager at Pharmacy Partners, says that the cost of a refit depends on the extent of the changes required. “If it was a partial refit, you could be looking at spending £15,000 to £20,000. If you are looking for a top-of-the-range refit you could be paying anything up to £100,000 or over.”

Nonetheless, he believes the investment is worth it: “The competition in pharmacy is quite fierce so if you’ve got a good, established pharmacy that looks bright, clean and professional, it does tend to attract more customers. Figures within the industry suggest that you can increase your turnover by as much as 30 per cent through having a shop refit.”

Mr Harwood says the firm can release funds that are currently tied up in the NHS payment cycle. “It is money duly owed to the pharmacy business — we pay them immediately for their NHS dispensing. By doing that they’re using their own funds as opposed to borrowing more money from the bank,” he explains.