GOLD Cross is facing a jelly bean war, with discount pharmacy giant, Chemist Warehouse (CWH) removing Glucojel products from its stores in favour of a private-label product.
In a message to pharmacy owners, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia noted that profits generated by its Gold Cross subsidiary through the sale of the pharmacy-only jelly beans supported the organisation's "advocacy work".
"CWH recently gave Gold Cross an ultimatum," the statement said.
"Either we granted them exclusive trading terms that we were not in a position to extend across the entire retail pharmacy network, or they would launch their own private-label alternative.
"We stand behind every community pharmacist in Australia so we refused.
"CWH has followed through by deleting Glucojel from its stores and launching their private-label product."
It is not clear how big a financial impact CWH's decision to withdraw Glucojel from its stores will have on Guild funding.
A Guild spokesperson declined to provide further comment on the jelly bean stoush, which has emerged after CWH's parent company CW Holdings reported a pre-tax profit of close to $550 millions, having seen annual revenue for the year to 30 Jun 2022 topping $3 billion for the first time.
The Herald Sun reported that rumoured efforts to float CWH on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) or to sell to an overseas buyer, have been hindered by the business's negotiations with the Pharmacy Council of NSW.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 21 Oct 22
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 21 Oct 22
