Pharmacy group
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Ackers (Chemists) Limited operates 4 NHS pharmacies in 2 ICBs. Dispensed 462k NHS items in the last 12 months, down 4.3% on the prior year. Estimated annual NHS income from dispensing and advanced services is around £1.6m. Deeply engaged with advanced services — nearly every branch is active, averaging 5.8 of 6 service lines. Parent company has been incorporated for more than 70 years (since 1954).
A step-change usually marks an acquisition; a steady slope is organic trade. The Pharmacy First launch in January 2024 shows up across most groups.
100-hour contracts carry higher opening-hour commitments for a higher core NHS fee. Distance-selling pharmacies fulfil prescriptions by post only — no walk-in customers.
Ackers (Chemists) Limited is modestly skewed to least-deprived areas (-5pp). National baseline: exactly 30% of LSOAs sit in the most-deprived third, so that's the neutral line.
Least-deprived third: 0% · middle: 75%
Each coloured segment is one of the ten IMD deciles (segment widths scale with branch counts). Red = most-deprived communities; green = least-deprived. A heavy red-weighted bar reads as “serves deprived communities” — a meaningful operator identity in a sector where historical contract allocation concentrated pharmacies in low-income areas.
Each sparkline shows one branch's 12-month items trend. The percentage is the six-month change (last six vs prior six months); it's coloured green when the branch is growing by 3%+, red when declining by 3%+, neutral otherwise. Shapes that cluster tightly suggest a homogeneous chain; wide variation points to an acquired portfolio of independents. Click any card for its profile.
Each dot is one branch. The vertical line is the median 12-month items in this network; the horizontal line is flat (0%) trend. Quadrants are descriptive, not judgemental: a smaller-volume branch can be entirely appropriate where it serves a small or remote population. Commissioners and operators typically look at the lower-left quadrant as an early-warning area. Click any dot for the branch profile.
Each cell is the branch's year-on-year % items change for that month — red for decline, stone for flat, green for growth, capped at ±25%. A branch that turns red and stays red is a genuine contractor; a stone band is stable; an intermittent amber-to-green ramp signals recovery. Rows are ordered by 12-month volume — the right-hand number is items dispensed in the last 12 months, coloured red/green by the branch's 6-month trend so growth and decline are visible at both granularities.
Half of Ackers (Chemists) Limited’s 4 reporting branches sit above the 57th national percentile for combined service engagement (NMS, Pharmacy First, BP, DMS, contraception, flu per 1,000 items). 3 branches beat the national median; 1 sit below.
Long-running appointments suggest a stable owner-operator. A cluster of resignations or a short director pattern can indicate a recent change in control, a restructure, or onboarding of external investors.
| # | Location | ICB | 12-month trend | Items (12m) | 6-mo Δ | Services |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kent · DA10 0BF | Kent and Medway ICB | 133.9k | -8% | 6 / 6 | |
| 2 | East Sussex · BN3 1RF | Sussex ICB (C 02-Apr-26) | 125.2k | +2% | 6 |
Group identity reconciled from NHSBSA Contractor Details using legal-entity name, enriched with Companies House registry data for the top 100 corporate groups. Dispensing aggregated across every branch currently owned by the group. Officer tenure and SIC codes sourced live from Companies House under Crown Copyright.
Estimate derived from published NHS fee rates: £2.85/item (SAF + professional fee), £28/NMS, £35/DMS, £17/Pharmacy First, £15/BP check, £18/contraception consultation; flu uses actual £ fees published per dose. Category M reimbursement, establishment payment, transitional payment, PQS banding and the £1,000 Pharmacy First monthly fixed fee are all excluded. Private and locally-commissioned income is not included.
Each cell is one month. Darker cells mean more branches joined the network that month. Evenly-spaced light cells suggest organic growth or absorption by transfer; concentrated hot cells mark discrete acquisitions.
Emerald shading is national pharmacy density; amber outlines flag hexes containing a Ackers (Chemists) Limited branch. Lets you read regional strategy at a glance — clustered around a few cities, broadly distributed, or concentrated in one corner of the country.
| 3 | Kent · DA10 0HF | Kent and Medway ICB | 103.0k | -1% | 6 / 6 |
| 4 | East Sussex · BN3 1GA | Sussex ICB (C 02-Apr-26) | 100.0k | -4% | 5 / 6 |