UK Pharmacy consultants, led by a Practising Pharmacist.

 

What does RSB Consulting do?

RSB Consulting advises the owners of UK community pharmacies on buying, selling and running them. The work covers pharmacy transactions, operational turnaround, NHS and ICB governance such as variations and relocations, insolvency and restructuring, HR and compliance, and secure automation of back-office admin. It is the trading name of RajSB Ltd and was founded by Rajkamal Singh Bhatti, a practising pharmacist, General Pharmaceutical Council registration number 2230365, formerly Superintendent Pharmacist of a national group of 120 branches which he took through insolvency and sale.

 

How long does it take to sell a pharmacy?

A pharmacy sale usually takes several months rather than weeks, and three to twelve months is the range most commonly quoted. The negotiation rarely sets the pace. In England, where the business is sold as assets, the buyer applies to the integrated care board for a change of ownership, and unless there is good cause for delay the board must decide within 30 days of holding everything it asked for - so the time goes on assembling that, on the landlord's consent to assign the lease, and on funding. Sellers who prepare before going to market lose less of it.

 

Does the NHS have to approve a pharmacy sale?

In England an NHS application is required when the legal identity of the contractor changes, and not when it stays the same. An asset sale changes it, so the buyer must apply to the integrated care board, which determines these applications for NHS England, for a change of ownership under regulation 26 of the 2013 pharmaceutical services regulations, before the change takes place. A share sale does not, because the company holding the contract carries on. Where ownership does change, the General Pharmaceutical Council must also be notified within 28 days of completion.

 

Can I sell my pharmacy without my staff finding out?

Yes - a confidential sale is the normal way this is done rather than a special arrangement. Buyers are approached under confidentiality, the pharmacy is described without being identified, and detail is released in stages to people who have signed a confidentiality agreement and can fund a purchase. In an asset sale, staff transfer under TUPE and must be informed beforehand, through elected representatives or directly where a small pharmacy has none, and consulted where measures affecting them are planned, but that falls near the end of the process. Until then, who is told and when is the owner's decision.

 

What makes one pharmacy worth more than another?

Buyers pay for the earnings they believe will still be there after the current owner has gone. Two pharmacies dispensing identical volumes can be worth very different amounts, and the reasons are not visible in volume alone: how the prescription mix and buying margin actually behave, whether clinical service income is built into the business or walks out with the departing pharmacist, how many years the lease has left and on what assignment terms, and how much of the rota rests on one or two people. What cannot be evidenced gets discounted.

 

Do I still need a solicitor and an accountant?

Yes - RSB Consulting is not a solicitor, an accountant or an insolvency practitioner, and never acts as one. The contracts, the tax planning and any formal insolvency process come from people qualified and regulated to provide them. What RSB does is hold the whole transaction together, so the NHS application, the lease, the funding and the legal documents move in the right sequence instead of each adviser waiting on another. Each one is brought in at the point the work actually reaches them, rather than everybody being engaged at the start.