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How much does the average pharmacy owner make? Theres not much info on uk owners online
Do you guys know any pharmacy owners that are making good money?
Ive heard pharmacy owners are millionaires

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I have worked with clients who owned pharmacies based in England, Wales or the USA.
The average pharmacy owner in England whose business operated between 9am to 6pm five days a week had annual turnover above £940k.
Much higher for pharmacies open 24/7 every day of the year.

The average pharmacy owner's total annual salary amongst clients seemed to be in the £130k-150k range.
It can be difficult to obtain accurate details of total pay and profits because pharmacy owners are very keen to minimise tax liabilities and may understate sales values/profits.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by londonmyst
I have worked with clients who owned pharmacies based in England, Wales or the USA.
The average pharmacy owner in England whose business operated between 9am to 6pm five days a week had annual turnover above £940k.
Much higher for pharmacies open 24/7 every day of the year.

The average pharmacy owner's total annual salary amongst clients seemed to be in the £130k-150k range.
It can be difficult to obtain accurate details of total pay and profits because pharmacy owners are very keen to minimise tax liabilities and may understate sales values/profits.

And do you think it is possible for a UK Mpharm graduate to start making this amount within a few years of starting up? (with also having around 50k savings)
Original post by STudentT1234212
And do you think it is possible for a UK Mpharm graduate to start making this amount within a few years of starting up? (with also having around 50k savings)

Difficult to predict considering the tax situation and economic aftermath of brexit & covid for the UK over the next 3-4 years.
It also depends on local region, family & networking contacts, personal work ethic and what other services the pharmacy provides.
Over the counter product range, links with beauticians and local gyms can greatly increase potential sales & turnover.
Original post by londonmyst
Difficult to predict considering the tax situation and economic aftermath of brexit & covid for the UK over the next 3-4 years.
It also depends on local region, family & networking contacts, personal work ethic and what other services the pharmacy provides.
Over the counter product range, links with beauticians and local gyms can greatly increase potential sales & turnover.

thanks for the info!
Reply 5
Avatar for 0895
0895
10
Original post by londonmyst
I have worked with clients who owned pharmacies based in England, Wales or the USA.
The average pharmacy owner in England whose business operated between 9am to 6pm five days a week had annual turnover above £940k.
Much higher for pharmacies open 24/7 every day of the year.

The average pharmacy owner's total annual salary amongst clients seemed to be in the £130k-150k range.
It can be difficult to obtain accurate details of total pay and profits because pharmacy owners are very keen to minimise tax liabilities and may understate sales values/profits.

Can you give a source for your figures please? And your background? Accountant?
I work for a largish small chain, and they made a £1M loss in 2019/20 year.
I think both of your figures may be what we call 'pre-cuts'.
Before the government cut the money paid to Pharmacy/pharmacies in 2016/17.
Turnover is related to number of items and counter sales, you can't really base it on opening hours, unless you are going to look at pharmacist wages, where obviously it would be much more to pay one in a 100 hour pharmacy.
And 24/7 is more American, I can only think there is maybe one or two of those in the UK.
Reply 6
Avatar for 0895
0895
10
Original post by STudentT1234212
And do you think it is possible for a UK Mpharm graduate to start making this amount within a few years of starting up? (with also having around 50k savings)

Hey man!
I really really, don't think you should do Pharmacy if you are mainly interested in money.
Pharmacy is simply not lucrative anymore, like it was in the 80s and 90s. Sorry to pi$$ on your parade.
Your savings are to be admired, but you will need much more as a down payment and buying a pharmacy can be an expensive business with paying accountants and solicitors.
With the Pharmacy future so uncertain, especially with Amazon trademarking their logo in the UK, and with the government keen to reduce the community pharmacy network,y ou would be a brave soul to buy a pharmacy in the next few years. Boots and Lloyds have together, closed 400 pharmacies. My other posts go into the future of community pharmacy if you wish to read them!
There is also a poster called Sarah_H, who with a little more experience than me, at 30 yrs, compared to my 25 years(!), also writes her opinions of community pharmacy and its future.
Original post by STudentT1234212
How much does the average pharmacy owner make? Theres not much info on uk owners online
Do you guys know any pharmacy owners that are making good money?
Ive heard pharmacy owners are millionaires

Just do medicine.

It's not known what the average pharmacy owner makes in the UK.

Every single owner I know sold up between the late 1990s and early 2010s. They were insanely successful businessmen. Comparisons have been done of how less profitable it is over the last 10-20 years and figures of 4x less profitable and 7x less profitable were numbers that came out a few times. These were done over a considerable period of time. Nearly all of them say they wouldn't do pharmacy in 2020. Many say they'd buy in a stake of a health centre instead.

I worked for one of the big three and profits on the community side weren't large (£12,000 a year in one store). Quite a few stores made losses. Quite a few stores were closed.

Pharmacies are funny things as they vary so much and they are very dependent on geography and the local arrangements/friendliness of the surgeries. There's generally not as much money in OTC as what people think. On beauty products, travel injections and a few other things with excellent choice and staff you can make more money, but this is dependent on the clientele. Healthy living type advice/vitamins/supplements with the right clientele you can make insane markups. The amount per item isn't enough in pharmacy to guarantee profits. Far from it. Pharmacy is on the whole a high volume, low margin business that needs to own the right pharmacy, have good staff and know what you are doing to make a lot of money.
Original post by 0895
Hey man!
I really really, don't think you should do Pharmacy if you are mainly interested in money.
Pharmacy is simply not lucrative anymore, like it was in the 80s and 90s. Sorry to pi$$ on your parade.
Your savings are to be admired, but you will need much more as a down payment and buying a pharmacy can be an expensive business with paying accountants and solicitors.
With the Pharmacy future so uncertain, especially with Amazon trademarking their logo in the UK, and with the government keen to reduce the community pharmacy network,y ou would be a brave soul to buy a pharmacy in the next few years. Boots and Lloyds have together, closed 400 pharmacies. My other posts go into the future of community pharmacy if you wish to read them!
There is also a poster called Sarah_H, who with a little more experience than me, at 30 yrs, compared to my 25 years(!), also writes her opinions of community pharmacy and its future.

Hi!. Youre just the person im looking for to ask about this career please respond to my message. Im currently in year 13 and am on the edge of deciding what to do. Its very stressful.
Its not just money. Only thing i enjoy in school is science. Ive done work experience in many places and i enjoyed the hospital the most. I know for a fact i would be happy being a doctor and helping patients when im old aged. BUT i do want to be rich maybe a bit rich before 30 too
What are your thoughts on optometry do you think its a lucrative career? And is having an opticians very profitable ?
Or pharmacy :tongue:
Original post by marinade
Or pharmacy :tongue:

What then? I cant imagine doing finance. I really want a to study something healthcare/science related at uni. nearly EVERYONE says their job is not good for money. Then what should i do?
Original post by STudentT1234212
What then? I cant imagine doing finance. I really want a to study something healthcare/science related at uni. nearly EVERYONE says their job is not good for money. Then what should i do?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41693230
what about dentistry?
going to uni solely for money isn't me, but it seems dentists make a fair amount and is a good course if you're interested in it.
My a level chemistry teacher said that dentists make $ more easily than medics anyways lol
Also what about studying computer science at uni's they make money too
but yh I dont think people go to uni just for money, or expect to make loads of money from degrees anyways
Original post by STudentT1234212
What then? I cant imagine doing finance. I really want a to study something healthcare/science related at uni. nearly EVERYONE says their job is not good for money. Then what should i do?

I actually think that pharmacy for the years invested (4 + 1) vs pay was in the past a pretty good number. That would disagree with the majority on this section of the forum. The future though, yeah it really doesn't look so good and I would be more pessimistic on that front than some of the others here.

If you stray away from financials there are a vast array of reasons why someone may not find pharmacy that good and they relate to working environment and working conditions in community pharmacy which are um not glamourous.

I get the 'healthcare' thing with pharmacy, just that large swathes of community pharmacy are not really 'healthcare' and this is one key reason why a lot don't like it.
(edited 3 years ago)
How old are you whats your salary? Youre a medic must be pretty high dunno why you said you wouldnt be rich by 30
Original post by hjhsdkvbt
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41693230
what about dentistry?
going to uni solely for money isn't me, but it seems dentists make a fair amount and is a good course if you're interested in it.
My a level chemistry teacher said that dentists make $ more easily than medics anyways lol
Also what about studying computer science at uni's they make money too
but yh I dont think people go to uni just for money, or expect to make loads of money from degrees anyways

Dentistry was my main goal i had everything set up but only thing was my predicted grades havnt made it :/
Original post by STudentT1234212
Dentistry was my main goal i had everything set up but only thing was my predicted grades havnt made it :/

what are you predicted grades
If you're only a few grades off and you have a really good ucat like around 700avg B2,work xp 2 weeks at dental practice, and around 6 A*/A gcse than it is worth trying to set up parent meetings and asking teachers a lot.
Sucks that some schools give these grades really easily compared to others.
Also the thing with predicted grades are that uni's treat them like real grades when giving offers so people eligible for contextual could take advantage of this easily because if you have a*a*a* predicted grades then you are much more likely to get interview, which if you pass and have contextual factors, you get an offer of ABB e.g at plymouth, kcl esdp course or AAB at some places I think bristol. But if you applied with AAB/ABB grades you would get rejected which is weird because the person with these real grades did more work than the person which got them as predicted - but this only applies for contextual.

if you have all the requirements and don't get to apply because of maybe one or two grades lower than AAA, you might find yourself go on to do all of biomedicine undergrad for 3 yrs and then reapply, like I've seen some people on youtube explain they did, so its like just get those one grade or two predicted grades extra if its the only thing holding you back

Also that :/ emoji is so out of date, who even uses that anymore??
And I know, I dont know how to use commas properly lol
(edited 3 years ago)
Today’s (27/9/20) Sunday Times has an article on the financial plight of Boots.

Of interest in the article was the report by accountancy analysts EY that, following funding cuts, community pharmacies are “financially unsustainable” with the estimate that about a third of independent pharmacies are currently loss making.

The article reported on the very rapid rise in prescription dispensing for online pharmacies such as P2U (enter Amazon Pharmacy??). This rise was facilitated by the current Covid epidemic. This trend is likely to continue partly driven by customer expectations. Also of interest was the statement that Boots make a loss on every prescription they deliver.

If you are after making money you won’t find it in community pharmacy unless the funding model changes. Unlikely (very) in present economic climate.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by hjhsdkvbt
what are you predicted grades
If you're only a few grades off and you have a really good ucat like around 700avg B2,work xp 2 weeks at dental practice, and around 6 A*/A gcse than it is worth trying to set up parent meetings and asking teachers a lot.
Sucks that some schools give these grades really easily compared to others.
Also the thing with predicted grades are that uni's treat them like real grades when giving offers so people eligible for contextual could take advantage of this easily because if you have a*a*a* predicted grades then you are much more likely to get interview, which if you pass and have contextual factors, you get an offer of ABB e.g at plymouth, kcl esdp course or AAB at some places I think bristol. But if you applied with AAB/ABB grades you would get rejected which is weird because the person with these real grades did more work than the person which got them as predicted - but this only applies for contextual.

if you have all the requirements and don't get to apply because of maybe one or two grades lower than AAA, you might find yourself go on to do all of biomedicine undergrad for 3 yrs and then reapply, like I've seen some people on youtube explain they did, so its like just get those one grade or two predicted grades extra if its the only thing holding you back

Also that :/ emoji is so out of date, who even uses that anymore??
And I know, I dont know how to use commas properly lol

All done. Except my ucat score is a bit lower than 700. And my teachers are predicting me as and bs highest. My schools very strict I know for a fact they wont change it. Really pi$$es me off. Wanted to be a doctor/dentist for the longest time

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