Christie & Co hosts inaugural ‘Prescription for success’ event

The inaugural event reviewed the current pharmacy market from a buyer’s perspective, providing insight into the sales process of a pharmacy and familiarising new applicants with market sentiment.

At Christie & Co, we have over 6,200 registered applicants, 81% of which are first time buyers, which means an overwhelming majority of applicants may be going through a formal acquisition process for the first time. This seeming lack of experience may be detrimental to the chances of an applicant acquiring and getting onto the pharmacy-ownership ladder.

Most of our sales go to a “best and final” offers stage and although we offer a template for offers to be placed, there can be a varying degree of detail or lack of, with the range of offers received. We are often asked how an offer can be distinguished from others and how best to demonstrate their desire to purchase. 

Covering an array of topics from valuation considerations to legal obstacles through to finance and business plans co-created with accountants, it was great to see a strong attendance, genuine audience engagement and positive feedback with some applicants even travelling all the way from Bristol and Essex. The feedback received included almost all applicants recommending the event with most rating the evening as 9/10. The level of expertise really resonated with the applicants and many were hearing about the level of due diligence required in a sale for the first time.

We set up this evening to support applicants but at the same time, it allowed us the time to meet buyers face to face and really get a grasp of their intentions. It is important to have a good understanding of our buyers, without this we cannot give our seller appropriate advice. The end goal of the event was to help those part of a bidding process, if we can achieve 100% diligent offers then all parties have gained from this experience.