“Grab the opportunity. Grab it with both hands.”

Blackpool Pharmacy’s Director, David Kelly discusses how his novel approach to community pharmacy services has become a £1 million+ business — and how fully funded (by the UK Government's Shared Prosperity Fund) support from Blackpool Growth Business  Academy is helping the business scale further.

Pick any town in the UK and you’ll find a health service under strain. Blackpool is no different. David Kelly spent the first seven years of his professional career as a community pharmacist in Blackpool before moving into general practice. He could see the challenges in the existing system, and the opportunities to approach things differently.

“Pharmacists fulfil a vital role in any community and they do a great job in often very challenging circumstances, but there are gaps. It’s in the reliability of services where things can fall down, I think most people who rely on the prescription service will know what it’s like to wait for a repeat prescription that doesn’t come or be told on Friday afternoon that medication they need is out of stock and they’ll need to go back to the doctor.

Patients just want reliability from their pharmacist — for things to happen the same way at the same time every week or month, to happen quickly, and to happen without prompting. We saw an opportunity to deliver that by breaking the boundaries of conventional services.” 

Blackpool Pharmacy was born in 2018, almost by accident. “I was talking with a colleague of mine at UCLan in Preston who was setting up a new pharmacy contract,” says David. “He asked if I’d get involved, in a sort of off the cuff way, and I said no because he was planning to set up elsewhere. I’m Blackpool born and bred, I understand the demographics here and the health needs of the local community. I could see the opportunity. When I explained that, he saw the opportunity too, so we launched in Blackpool instead.”

A different mindset

David and his two business partners launched the new business from premises on Cornford Rd, Mereside. From the outset, the new NHS contract under which the pharmacy operated imposed a requirement to operate differently to other community pharmacies in the area. David saw strategic opportunity in leaning into that difference.

“We offer our services across the whole of the Fylde Coast, a typical pharmacy will operate within a one-mile square radius, so that’s a major point of difference. In fact, our contract requires us to provide prescription services to anyone in England. That compels us to operate with a different mindset [compared with other local pharmacies], and we’ve carried that difference through into the broader service we offer.”

Every pharmacy aims to offer excellent care, but David saw an opportunity to reengineer the pharmacist/patient relationship to go beyond standard service levels. “We aim to deal with  problems rather than give them back to the patient. As far as possible, we'll liaise with doctors so patients don’t have to. We will dispense at a loss when, despite their NHS contract requiring it, a lot of companies won't. That’s something that can cause real bottlenecks in the system because patients then need to go back to their GP.

“We’ve also developed robust supply chains that have helped us build a fantastic reputation with local doctor surgeries for sourcing the hard-to-get drugs. We’ve had numerous instances of local doctors saying, ‘go to Blackpool Pharmacy first’.

Scaling Blackpool Pharmacy With Blackpool Growth Business Academy

Five years after launch, David and his team have built a successful £1million+ turnover business. The question now is how to scale. “We had lots of ideas,” David explains. “If anything we had too many ideas and it was hard for us to focus and identify goals we could really commit to.”

David discovered Blackpool Growth Business Academy through a colleague. One short scale-ups application form later and David was introduced to Mick Cox, academy business advisor and scaleup specialist.

“I really get on with Mick,” says David. “We talk the same language and he's helped me to get laser focused on the business. “He’s helped me to take a sort of stream of consciousness set of thoughts, get them down on paper and turn them into a timeline and action plan. Having the space to do that has been really valuable. Just the act of articulating your thoughts to someone who can push back and challenge really helps to crystallise your thinking.”

Beyond the strategic, David is seeing benefits day-to-day. “I have a clearer view of my role as a director,” he says. “I'm here to drive the business forward, so I need to avoid being sucked into the minutiae. We have a fantastic team at the pharmacy who take ownership of the way it operates. I’ve learnt to step away and let them get on with it rather than trying to tinker with things.”

Getting the measure of marketing

Something else David is aiming to scale is Blackpool Pharmacy’s marketing activities. As a company, we've done marketing,” he says, “but I have no training in it. I’ve done an SEO and Facebook ads masterclass with the academy and I’m now putting together a marketing plan with Mick and Nikki Hesford, leader of the academy] so we can elevate our marketing to where it needs to be.”

Local feel. National ambition

Elevating the marketing will be crucial to David’s ambition to take Blackpool Pharmacy national, yet the local presence remains vitally important.

“To date we’ve been operating to a non-patient-facing model,” he explains. “Despite this, our Google reviews and Facebook comments are really impressive. That has encouraged us to open up our patient-facing services for the local population. We’ll soon be offering over-the-counter sales, clinical services, blood pressure monitoring, vaccinations and more and we’ll be expanding the Cornford Rd site to enable that.

“But we do have an ambition to take what we do national, and one of the biggest challenges in scaling will be ensuring that we don’t dilute the reputation we’ve built. I’m talking about that with Mick now, ensuring we build carefully, and that we protect the local provision by segregating it while we create a separate team to focus on the national project.

Nothing to lose and everything to gain”

 What would David say to other Blackpool business leaders looking to scale their organisations? 

“I think I assumed that we were on our own in this,” he reflects. “I’m a very independent person and tend to think ‘I’ll sort it’ for every challenge you need to overcome. You’re resigned to the fact that whatever success you enjoy will be off your own back. I imagine many business owners feel that way.

“But I have found Blackpool Growth Business Academy so useful. It's made me realise what I wasn't doing as a director. I’ve gained some practical tools. And it’s given me a framework for my ideas. To anyone in a similar position I would say you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

Grab the opportunity. Grab it with both hands.”

Growing and scaling your Blackpool enterprise? Access fully-funded support from Blackpool Growth Business Academy here, or call 01253 477147