Walter Davidson & Sons, Scotland’s biggest surviving independent pharmacy chain, says it has firepower of £10m for acquisitions to add to its 33 outlets.
Family-owned Davidsons Chemists, based in Blairgowrie and headed by non-family managing director Allan Gordon, has reported an 11per cent rise in underlying pre-tax profit to £2.5millin in the year to January 2015.
Turnover was up by four per cent to £35.5m.
Mr Gordon said it was “the most profitable year in the company’s long history.”
He went on: “The company continues to look for acquisition opportunities and has set a medium term target of achieving an estate of 40 pharmacies. The company continues to build up large cash resources and is looking to invest up to £10m in these new ventures.”
The company dates back to 1897 . On reaching its centenary in 1997 it began a strategy of growth through acquisition, but its geographical radius was limited to 60 miles by its self-distribution model.
Two years ago it closed its distribution depot at Blairgowrie with the loss of 15 jobs, switching to an outsourced provision through Alliance Healthcare.
That freed it to look further afield in central Scotland for new outlet opportunities.
The chain added stores in Elie, Fife, and Killin, Stirlingshire in 2013 and in Drymen last year.
The 2015 accounts are yet to be posted but the group’s cash position was £3.8m in 2014 with an overdraft of £2.3m, leaving net funds of £1.5m, with employment standing at 284.
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