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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW 4 NEWS IN FOCUS Simon Reynolds MANAGING DIRECTOR, PHARMACY ALLIANCE The pharmacist’s son, who took inspiration from his father to launch a pharmacy network run by independent owners that’s now almost 800 members strong, tells Retail Pharmacy about the group’s pandemic experience and his plans to make it better at retailing. Simon, please tell us a little about yourself, your experience in pharmacy and about the Pharmacy Alliance. I’m a second-generation pharmacist. My dad, Bob Reynolds, was my mentor and inspiration for starting Pharmacy Alliance. Following stints in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, he bought his first pharmacy in Albany in 1968. I essentially grew up in the pharmacy and saw how hard he worked to help the community of Albany. Unfortunately, Bob passed away late last year, but he’ll continue to be a driving force for my career as a pharmacist. I started my career in a large, branded shopping centre pharmacy in Perth in the late 90s. I quickly learned that for independent pharmacy to thrive we needed better support and a better understanding of retail. So, I started Pharmacy Alliance to empower independent pharmacy owners by increasing their profits through providing innovative and effective retail tools and services so they could realise their goals, whatever they may be. Pharmacy Alliance started with five pharmacies in WA and we’ve grown our pharmacy network to almost 800 members. We’ve done this through understanding the intricacies of pharmacy, developing tools that make a difference to how pharmacy owners manage their pharmacy, and having meaningful conversations with pharmacy owners about their goals and aspirations. A major strength at Pharmacy Alliance is that we’re run by independent pharmacy owners. All my stores are members and receive exactly the same service as other members. If there’s something that affects members’ profitability, then it affects the profitability in my stores as well. We’re in it together, which is why at Pharmacy Alliance we’re ‘better together’. Your members are right across Australia and in all settings. How have they fared with Covid-19? Our members have fared better than most throughout the height of the pandemic. Our operations teams across the country and member support team in Melbourne had to change focus quickly. While many businesses in the industry took their field teams off the road, our operations team continued to visit members where they could, to provide hands-on help – whether it was putting away stock or helping customers. There were times when we were hand delivering essential equipment to our members all weekend. In May last year, we celebrated the efforts of members through our ‘Covid-19 Super Heroes’ campaign in social media, at our very first online members meeting. A member survey later in the year showed that we met our pharmacies’ expectations in helping them put Covid-19 measures in place. What were the key changes that you had to make in the business to adapt? Firstly, we had to use new technology. Getting our team to use Microsoft Teams and using Telstra Business Connect were important to create a virtual member support office. Our teams initially met more frequently, with team huddles to check in on how things were going, and also ensure we were responding to member needs as Covid-19 impacts unfolded – from securing stock of masks, hand sanitiser and thermometers to managing out-of-stocks with our supply partners, and changing marketing programs to help our members keep their communities informed and to reinforce that they were there to support their community. Hopefully, we’ll soon have pharmacists administering Covid-19 vaccines. Will your group be participating? What do you hope will be the outcome of this program? Seventy-eight per cent of our members expressed interest in administering the Covid-19 vaccine in their pharmacy. However, our members not getting confirmation of whether they’ve been successful, or having an update on dates, is frustrating. Despite this, we’ve provided operational resources for our members to prepare, and we’re also working on marketing material for our pharmacies in preparation. Through this we hope that our members will be seen as a pivotal service in keeping their communities safe and healthy. This includes being able to respond to health emergencies like Covid-19. The pandemic has changed Australian consumer behaviour significantly, but it’s also shown Australians how important their local community pharmacy is. What are your group’s priorities in 2021? Our main focus for 2021 is ensuring that Alliance Pharmacy becomes a trusted brand and destination for the Australian consumer. We’re going to achieve this through investment, innovation and, most importantly, risk share with the pharmacy owner and putting our money where our mouth is by providing a profit guarantee. For independent pharmacy to remain competitive then we need to be better at retailing. Hence our focus will be to grow the retail sales of each and every one of our members. This means getting the retail basics right and developing our members to be great retailers. We’re committed to making sure our members are able to continue to meet the evolving needs of all Australians, in whatever shape Covid-19 continues, or, if there’s another health emergency, that our members are equipped to manage it. RETAIL PHARMACY • JUNE 2021