Lloyds pharmacy group prescribes expansion plan

THE country’s largest pharmacy group, Lloyds, is back on the acquisition trial and is seeking the go-head to buy four pharmacies from the McSweeney Group.

Now owned by US pharmacy giant McKesson, Lloyds had an aggressive expansion plan under former managing director Goretti Brady who wanted to increase the size of the group from 90 pharmacies to 150. It had at one stage been in talks to buys Sam McCauley chemists, which was acquired last year by private equity fund Carlyle Cardinal Ireland (CCI).

However, its expansion plans stalled in 2015 when Lloyds was hit by a controversy over the level of dispensing fees being claimed by the pharmacy chain and in 2016 Lloyds settled with the HSE. The chain closed five outlets last month in Dublin, Wicklow, Carlow and Kilkenny but obviously sees opportunities elsewhere with the McSweeney stores in counties Sligo, Kerry and Limerick.