Sainsbury‘s, which was yesterday announced as Britain‘s second largest supermarket chain, has formed a strategic partnership with Celesio AG, owner of Lloyds Pharmacy. The partnership will see LloydsPharmacy acquire Sainsbury‘s pharmacy business for £125m and Sainsbury‘s will receive commercial annual rent payments from LloydsPharmacy for each location.
Mike Coupe, CEO of Sainsbury‘s, said:
“Pharmacy services are incredibly popular with Sainsbury‘s customers and we are delighted to be teaming up with LloydsPharmacy to develop our offer. Working together with a specialist operator like LloydsPharmacy will enable us to grow and extend our pharmacy services to customers, whilst realising value for shareholders today from the pharmacy business we have grown organically over the last 20 years.”
LloydsPharmacy is the country‘s second biggest retail pharmacy operator with more than 1,500 stores across the UK. Under the terms of the transaction, it has agreed to acquire 281 pharmacies in total, including 277 in-store pharmacies and four located in hospitals, all of which will be rebranded as LloydsPharmacy..
The deal is expected to complete by the end of February next year, subject to regulatory conditions being satisfied.
