Walgreens targets Australia
March 4, 2016
SUPERMARKETS or Walgreens,
which do Australian pharmacy
proprietors fear most?
With the Australian retail
pharmacy market worth some
$15b, US-UK based Walgreens
Boots Alliance (WBA) is looking to
enter and take a share, according to
a Fairfax media report today.
The global company has been
wanting to enter the Australian
market for more than 100 years,
but location rules, which are
currently under review, have been
the blocking point.
Poised to leap into the market
at the first legal opportunity,
WBA registered its trademark
with IP Australia just last year and
according to the report, is hoping
to establish the Boots franchise
with an emphasis on health and
beauty products.
WBA global brands president
Ken Murphy was quoted as saying
that with the high numbers of
Australians travelling, the Boots
brand is very well known already in
the country, making it an obviously
valuable brand to launch here.
Location laws which restrict
ownership of pharmacies to
pharmacists only, excluding
corporations, are locked in place
under the current agreement
with the federal government until
2020, but this may change in the
future with the govt-commissioned
independent review reporting its
findings in March 2017.
Murphy emphasised that with
annual revenues of US$104b, his
company could bring significant
scale and efficiency benefits as the
government tries to reign in soaring
healthcare costs.
“We invest a lot in pharmacy
systems and services and in training
of pharmacists - I think more than
half the pharmacists in the UK have
done their training at Boots - and
we have a phenomenal logistics
platform and supply chain.”
Murphy said the company would
be happy to establish a foothold in
Australia by acquiring pharmacies,
“but we’d have to have the legal
permission to do so”.
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