Lloyds Pharmacy
Lloyds Pharmacy bulks up in battle of chemist chainsMichael Harrison Business Editor The German owner of Britain's biggest chemists' chain moved to bolster its market presence yesterday before the planned pounds 7bn merger of Boots and Alliance UniChem by acquiring a rival pharmacy business.
Celesio, the owner of Lloyds Pharmacy, has bought the 111 community pharmacies trading under the Cohens and Scholes names for about pounds 120m. The takeover makes multimillionaires of the Indian brothers, Yakuy and Anwar Patel, who founded the Cohens chain 25 years ago.
The deal will increase the size of the Lloyds Pharmacy chain to 1,524 outlets, compared with the 2,400 branches Alliance-Boots will have should the merger be approved by shareholders and competition authorities.
Justin Ash, the managing director of Lloyds Pharmacy, said the purchase had been under negotiation well before the Alliance-Boots deal was unveiled two weeks ago. The takeover will give the enlarged Lloyds Pharmacy group a turnover of almost pounds 1.4bn and extend its presence in areas such as the North-west, the Midlands and Yorkshire, where it was previously weak.
The deal will help Lloyds Pharmacy take greater advantage of government moves to give community chemists a greater advisory role in areas of healthcare such as diabetes testing, obesity and anti- smoking.
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