Pharmacy group hungry for more acquisitions

THE UniPhar pharmacy group are on the lookout for further acquisitions after their takeover of the Cork chemists chain Phelans.

The Dublin-based UniPhar bought out 10 of the 12 Phelan’s chemists last week in believed in a deal believed to be worth in the region €20 million.

Phelan is owned by Cork couple Conor and Denise Phelan. Companies Registration Office documents list the couple as the directors of the firm, which started in Carrigaline.

The takeover of the Phelan chains will allow UniPhar to extend its Independent Pharmacy Ownership Scheme (IPOS). This allows younger pharmacists to eventually buy their own outlet over a 10-year period. UniPhar buys or sets up a pharmacy and over time reduces its stake.

UniPhar will now have 62 outlets under the IPOS scheme and plans further expansion.

The Tallaght-based company, which is owned by hundreds of individual pharmacists, has raised €100 million to fund its expansion plans and, according to a spokesman yesterday, it is looking to grow by acquisition of pharmacies.

The Irish pharmacy sector has been ignited over the past couple of years since the entry of German firm Celesio (formerly GeHe) which have made a number of acquisitions here, including the €100 million takeover of the Unicare chain.

The sector has been under scrutiny in recent years with worries that many of the major chains would pick and choose the best sites in urban areas and pull out of rural locations if major deregulation of the industry went ahead.

This has not proved to be the case and many small, independent pharmacists in the coming years could be turned into overnight millionaires.