A very good friend of mine once told me, “These times will change”. Now whilst that nugget of gold was told to me at a particularly bad spot in my life, it also applies when times are really good.
Now, I don’t want you to think I am a pessimist. Anyone who knows me well, knows I am a fence sitter. I like to see all perspectives and all points of view. It’s a better view of the world.
In pharmacy land, many owners are seeing some good years lately, particularly in regard to trading performance. Labour supply remains a huge issue. The data we are seeing is showing good consistent years of growth in sales, gross profit and overall earnings. And it has been really good to see. Let us not forget though, in the not-too-distant past, 2019 to be precise, retail was terrible. It was not uncommon for retail sales to decline 5% to 10% each year. Pharmacies were only held up by Dispensary and Health Service.
So, it is important we remain careful and always have an eye on the future, to know what we should be doing now.
2023 financial year has got some head winds that may impact pharmacy trading performance going forward. Keep in mind here that 2022 bought many pharmacies additional revenue streams for Covid Vaccinations and RAT sales. Potentially many of those customers were new to your store and bought other things when they were there. Without as stronger need for RAT’s and Covid Vaccinations are customer numbers likely to drop off? This issue has been raised with me a few times with owners.
We are also in an environment now of higher inflation and cost of living is up as a result. Interest Rates are growing and hitting household budgets. What impact is this going to have?
