UK pharmacy chain collapses into administration after £5m loss – ‘fed up staff shut shop’
Some staff have reportedly gone months without being paid while certain branches have been left without appropriate stock.
Staff at one branch walked out after reportedly being without a manager for 10 weeks (Image: Getty)
An independent UK pharmacy chain has plunged into administration after reporting a £5million loss. It comes months after furious staff staged a walk-out at a branch in Oxfordshire.
Jhoots Pharmacy reported a pre-tax loss of £5,028,184 in the year December 2023 before Allied Pharmacies acquired 129 of its branches. However, the pharmacy has continued to struggle with staff at the branch in Abingdon walking out on August 15 last year after reportedly being left without a manager for 10 weeks.
As reported by the Oxford Mail, the staff left a notice on the pharmacy window which read: “It is really hard trying to run a pharmacy without a pharmacist, or manager. As a Trustpilot review says, ‘like a pub with no beer’.”
Jhoots Pharmacy, which is run from Walsall by a businessman named Sarbjit Singh Jhooty, owed £1.7m to the banks via loans and overdrafts. According to documents filed at Companies House, Lloyds bank held 16 unsatisfied charges against the business in December 2024.
The branch in Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight, was officially removed from the NHS pharmaceutical list last July with a further 20 stores flagged for potential removal. Ian James and Rajnesh Mittal, of FRP Advisory, have now been appointed as joint administrators for the business.
Jhoots Pharmacy reported £5 million loss in 2023 (Image: Google Maps Street View)
Stephen Kinnock, the health minister, said last October that it is “completely and utterly unacceptable if a business such as Jhoots is not paying its staff”. He added: “Unfortunately, there are some (pharmacies) that fall short of the standards that we expect, and sadly, the services provided by Jhoots are falling well below the mark.”
It was estimated by the Pharmacy Defence Association that Jhoots owed over £870,000 in unpaid locum fees to its owners. Some staff had reportedly gone months without pay while some branches were low in stock.
