Fresh from the news that OTC healthcare company Omega Pharma has bought its very own pharmacy, UK general manager Neil Lister spoke to Gemma O’Sullivan about the company’s rapid growth and future plans

It’s been a busy three years for Omega Pharma. Launching new products, breathing life into old ones, training pharmacy teams and applying a ‘pharmacy first’ attitude to everything it does, have all helped the company rocket to fourth position in the UK’s consumer healthcare company rankings. This is something that the company’s UK general manager Neil Lister is very proud of. “Three years ago, the company was not on people’s radar,” says Neil. “We set out with the ambition to reach number three [in the consumer healthcare rankings], so going up the rankings is important and meaningful.”

But Neil insists that Omega Pharma is not complacent in the face of its achievements to date. “This is a 10 year journey,” he says. “We need to deliver consistent change over time.” With a clear passion for the sector, Neil makes sure that everything the company does puts pharmacy at the heart of it, and the company’s latest challenge – owning its own pharmacy – is testament to that.

Engaging with OTC

Over the past few years, Omega Pharma has invested heavily in launching new brands and products, such as XLS Medical as well as reviving pharmacy stalwarts such as Buttercup. This is despite some pharmacies finding it a challenge to engage with OTC medicines when they make up a relatively small part of their overall business. “OTC sales can vary in pharmacy from five per cent up to 25 per cent,” explains Neil.

To get towards the higher end of that spectrum, Neil says that the shopping environment must be right, the pharmacist must be released from the dispensary to engage with customers, and staff must be knowledgeable enough to help shoppers with their journeys. “It can be done,” insists Neil, “and the more services that pharmacy can own, the more people it can attract to drive footfall into stores. There are lots of things that need to happen for this to be the case though.” Up-skilling pharmacy support staff has been a key focus for Omega Pharma. Paper-based training booklets, an online portal and roadshows make up the Omega Pharma University.

With a philosophy of educating teams on healthcare categories first and then the relevant products, the company’s training programme has included booklets on pain relief, hayfever and weight management as well as headlice and sleep problems. “We also put a focus on what’s important to pharmacy at the moment,” says Neil, “so our current series of roadshows includes training on the General Pharmaceutical Council’s inspections.” The company’s training programme hasn’t wavered following last year’s disappointing Which? survey into pharmacy service, but Neil does worry that pharmacy’s confidence is fragile as a consequence of the report.

“The Which? results were damaging and sad for pharmacy,” he says. “The risk is that the industry makes a kneejerk reaction. We need to support and elevate the role of pharmacy, not criticise it and knock its confidence.”

A new venture

Neil is hoping that the company’s latest venture – the purchase of Warman-Freed Pharmacy in Golders Green, North London – will be a step in the right direction and will help it to better understand the challenges that community pharmacies face and trial solutions that could benefit the whole sector. “By owning our own pharmacy, we hope to be a servant to pharmacy and better understand and focus on what’s on pharmacy’s agenda,” says Neil. With 32 members of staff and a long history of serving its community, Warman-Freed Pharmacy is iconic in Golders Green. “The pharmacy has been around for over 50 years,” explains Neil, “and as well as being open until midnight 365 days of the year, the original owner gave a lot back to the community over that time.”

This is a principle that Neil is keen to ensure Omega Pharma maintains. “We’ll tell the local community what we’re doing as we want to be responsive to what it wants and needs from its pharmacy,” he promises. As well as using the pharmacy to learn more about customer behaviour, pricing, store layout, cross-selling between prescription and OTC products, and testing ways to work more efficiently, Omega Pharma is hoping the acquisition will help it to be a voice for pharmacy. “It’s very exciting,” says Neil. “The level of partnership that we can now give will be unparalleled. We’ll have a high level of surveillance in the pharmacy to test ideas in a real setting – the richness of data should be so much more than what we can achieve in a virtual pharmacy.”

The plan is then to trial ideas with other pharmacy groups to bring positive changes to the industry. However, Neil adds: “It’s also just as important to tell people when we fail.” Neil insists it won’t be a ‘rose-tinted’ Omega store as this would not be representative or realistic and the company would not be able to achieve the learnings that it wants. “We need to be closer to customers – and that starts at a local level,” he explains. “In OTC’s most basic form, it’s about care. Pharmacy is an extension of that and we need to take customers back to the products and care that they need and love. We hope that through our actions, we can help move the debate about pharmacy and public health forward.”