Well, formerly known as The Co-operative Pharmacy, is the largest independent pharmacy business and the third largest overall pharmacy chain after

Boots UK Boots UK Limited (formerly Boots the Chemists), trading as Boots, is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom and other countries and territories including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand an ...

and

Lloyds Pharmacy LloydsPharmacy is a British pharmacy company. It has around 17,000 staff and dispenses over 150 million prescription items annually. It is owned by the Aurelius Group. It was formerly owned by the American McKesson Corporation. Overview The com ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It is the largest pharmacy chain in Wales. Following months of speculation,

The Co-operative Group Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including food retail, wholesale, e-pharmacy, insurance and legal services, and funeral care. The Co-op ...

revealed in July 2014, that they had come to an agreement to divest the pharmacy business to the

Bestway Group Bestway Group is a British Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate company based in London, England. It has its operations in United Kingdom and Pakistan. The group owns the UK's second-largest wholesaler serving 125,000 independe ...

for £620 million. The sale was completed in October 2014 and Bestway was given a licence to continue using the Co-operative brand for 12 months. In 2015, Bestway began to rebrand the company as Well. Other retail co-operatives in the United Kingdom, such as

Midcounties Co-operative The Midcounties Co-operative, branded as Your Co-op, is a consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom with over 700,000 members. Registered in England under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, it is a member of Co-opera ...

, continue to operate Co-op Pharmacy branded stores, which were not affected by the sale.

History

The Co-operative Pharmacy

The Co-operative Pharmacy was previously the trading name of National Co-operative Chemists, part of Co-operative Group Healthcare based in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, and Belfast Co-operative Chemists, a wholly owned subsidiary operating in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Established in 1945, National Co-operative Chemists traded in areas without a regional society pharmacy, although some independent societies (such as

The Midcounties Co-operative The Midcounties Co-operative, branded as Your Co-op, is a consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom with over 700,000 members. Registered in England under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, it is a member of Co-operat ...

) also operated their own in-house chemists under The Co-operative Pharmacy brand after it was introduced in 2007. In 2001, The Co-operative Pharmacy pioneered the use of

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

on the packaging of own label medicines and, in 2012, it became the first retail pharmacy chain in the UK to become carbon neutral. The Co-operative Doctor was an online diagnosis and treatment system. In 2011, The Co-operative Pharmacy teamed up with The-Clinic.com to provide clinical and medical input. The-Clinic.com’s medical services were provided by Freedom Health, which is registered with the Healthcare Commission. In February 2014, after suffering a £2.5bn loss for 2013, The Co-operative Group announced that it was to start exploring options to sell their pharmacy business along with other businesses in their portfolio.

Bestway Group

The Co-operative Group agreed to divest the business to the

for £620 million in July 2014. The sale was completed in October 2014 and Bestway were given a licence to continue using the Co-operative brand for 12 months. On 10 February 2015 during an event held in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, it was announced that Well would become the new brand for the pharmacy business and that all 780 branches would have all reference to The Co-operative Pharmacy removed and replaced with Well by the end of October 2015.

Services

In 2018 it had 794 pharmacies across the UK and Northern Ireland. It launched an online NHS prescription service in July 2018. By January 2019, 25,184 patients had signed up. In February 2021 it formed a partnership with

Push Doctor Push Doctor was the UK's first platform to offer video consultations with patients online and via smartphone. It is a GP provider and remote consultation enabler in the UK with a reach of 5.4 million patients. Push Doctor is a NHS-commissioned te ...

to launch what they called the country’s first pharmacy-first digital service. Patients can conduct digital consultations with pharmacists. This was launched in the Plymouth Sound

primary care network A Primary care network is a structure which brings general practitioners together on an area basis, possibly with other clinicians, to address chronic disease management and prevention. In 2022 the term is used in England, Singapore and Alberta. ...

and in Warrington primary care network, where Well’s clinical pharmacists work alongside GPs as part of an integrated practice team.

Controversy

In late 2018, Well Pharmacy faced controversy after a data breach leaking the personal information of 24,000 employees. It reportedly launched a full investigation of the data breach, which occurred due to an operating error, resulting in the distribution of an email containing personal information to various locums on 11 December 2018.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.well.co.uk Pharmacies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1945 Pharmacy brands 2014 mergers and acquisitions