SUPERMARKET giant, Woolworths, is pledging to strengthen Australia's community pharmacy sector if its bid for wholesaler, Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) is successful.
In an open letter to pharmacists - published in today's edition of Pharmacy Daily - Woolworths Group CEO, Brad Banducci, has moved "to allay misplaced concerns" about the company's intentions.
"We are not here to disrupt the sector," he said.
"We are here to help strengthen it.
"We strongly believe that a strong local community pharmacy health model is key to the health and wellbeing of our local communities and nation overall.
"Through our proposal to acquire API, we are committed to helping those in the sector successfully operate their independently owned businesses.
"Our investment revolves around bringing a set of capabilities we believe can help strengthen the existing vital role you play in the community for the benefit of both patients and customers."
Banducci said he understood pharmacists' concerns over Woolworths' bid "given the history of perceived rivalry between the pharmacy and supermarket sectors", but stressed the company will not seek to change pharmacy location and ownership rules under his leadership.
While rival bidder, Wesfarmers' Managing Director, Rob Scott, told Pharmacy Daily that the company would help API's pharmacy banner groups' franchisees to compete against supermarket giants in the front of shop health and beauty categories (PD 16 Dec), Banducci suggested there was little overlap between pharmacy and supermarket shopping intentions.
"To the extent that our supermarkets and Big W stores participate in the health and beauty space, we are very aware of the practical reality of the distinct shopping missions and fundamentally different customer experiences of pharmacy versus supermarket shopping," he said.
The Woolworths CEO did not directly address concerns about how it would manage data from the Priceline Sister Club loyalty scheme, however, Banducci said the company would use its "extensive experience in areas such as digital, loyalty, payments, analytics and importantly, privacy" to work with API to support their pharmacy partners.
See page three for more.
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