The national competition watchdog has given a conditional greenlight for LloydsPharmacy to acquire 270 pharmacies from Sainsbury‘s for £125 million.
Under the terms of the transaction set out to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), LloydsPharmacy will obtain 281 pharmacies in total, including 277 in-store pharmacies and four located in hospitals.
Sainsbury‘s pharmacy colleagues will also transfer to LloydsPharmacy, and subject to CMA consent, all these stores will be rebranded as LloydsPharmacy.
However, the CMA identified 12 areas where the acquisition of Sainsbury’s pharmacies may result in a lessening of competition, and that they need to be sold off to remedy the situation.
LloydsPharmacy parent company Celesio said they would work ensure colleagues in the affected areas were supported during the transition.
“Sainsbury‘s is a leading UK retailer, which has created an attractive pharmacy business. As a specialist pharmacy operator we can build on this strong foundation to offer Sainsbury‘s customers a more enhanced health offering,” Celesio UK managing director Cormac Tobin said.
“We also gain access to new customer groups and to new locations where LloydsPharmacy‘s physical bricks and mortar presence is not currently as strong.”
Through its LloydsPharmacy subsidiary, Celesio operates around 1540 pharmacies across the UK.
