Pharmacy Alliance Delivers Future Growth Plans at Annual Forum

Pharmacy Alliance members took time out of their busy pharmacies to shape their future at the annual Pharmacy Alliance Members’ Forum at Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast this week.

Addressing more than 130 member and supplier partner delegates, Darren Dye said “Our focus as a business is to help our members grow and develop their profits in an uncertain pharmacy environment by providing specific strategies that they can implement to provide greater return”.

The Pharmacy Alliance team presented a strategic plan that will see membership grow to 1100+ pharmacies by 2020 which includes both independent and co-branded Alliance Pharmacy members.

Initiatives have been developed to drive members’ future financial success through Alliance Rewards, a new rewards program for pharmacies and more development with supported Z POS and Dispense system to drive pharmacy operational.

At the core of the plan is meeting customer needs via Alliance Pharmacy that aggregates the collective membership to consumers and changes consumer behaviour.

With now almost 100 Alliance Pharmacies across Australia, Pharmacy Alliance has an aggressive growth target of 550 Alliance Pharmacies 2020.

Kos Sclavos, in his health strategist role at Sinapse, as opening keynote said that the key to shaping the future is to focus on creating a deep relationship with their patients with tools that are readily available today.

Trent Twomey, Guild Chair Pharmacy Viability Committee, highlighted that community pharmacy is not maximising the 6CPA and that this will not help achieve better outcomes in the 7CPA.

Trent led delegates through creating a plan to better engage their customers and maximise their income that included ways to achieve the maximum Medschecks per month through targeting top customers and using the right words to talk to customers about their medications.

International retail expert, Gal Shivtiel, drew on overseas examples to emphasise how shoppers want to shop, when they want to shop and what inspires them. He emphasised that pharmacy needs to continue to deliver the best customer experience by being reliable and delighting the customer.

In addition, Pharmacy Alliance revealed their pain category strategy, a collaborative project with key supplier partners, to differentiate co-branded Alliance Pharmacy members as pain management experts.

With direction from each conference speaker, the delegates took away a business plan to help them define their goals and objectives with guides to review each area of their pharmacy and an action plan to help them shape the future they want.