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Update 21/10/2025: This article has been updated with comment from Day Lewis.

A seven per cent rise in running costs year-on-year has contributed to Day Lewis posting a post-tax loss of £4.15m in its accounts for the year to March 31 due to a one-off cash impairment, its latest accounts reveal. 

The chain’s latest Companies House filing reveals that in the 2024-25 financial year its operational costs rose from £112m to £120m, helping to reverse what had been a £5.5m post-tax profit in the previous year. 

“The majority of administration costs are linked to headline inflation rates such as staff costs, energy utilities and rent and rates,” said the company’s directors in their report.  

Operating profits fell from £14.2m to £2.6m despite turnover seeing a one per cent year-on-year increase to £507m. This was due to a one-off impairment; operating profits stood at £15.7m prior to the application of this charge.

Gross profit rose by £8.3m to £135.7m, while the gross margin percentage rose from 25 per cent to 27 per cent.  

“Pharmacy performance remained strong during the financial year to March 31, 2025 with strong year-on-year growth in dispensing prescriptions, OTC sales and pharmacy services,” the directors commented. 

The chain dispensed 29.3 million items in 2024-25, marking a growth of 3.6 per cent in line with the national items growth rate in England of 3.8 per cent. 

The company said it “prides itself on its service-led approach” and has built “a large base of loyal, recurring customers, evidenced by repeat prescriptions making up almost 66 per cent of the group’s dispensing activities”. 

They added that in recent years Day Lewis has “significantly expanded its service delivery”.

Sale of branches with low footfall

The estate stood at 245 branches as of March 2025, 10 fewer than the year before.  

The report states: “We continue to enhance our estate through relocating branches to superior locations, focusing on added value services, merging multiple pharmacies into larger sites and disposing of pharmacies with particularly low footfall.”

It adds that the group’s pharmacies “are typically located in local communities, in or near health centres and GP surgeries,” which helps to achieve “increased footfall” and “strong relationships with the local healthcare community”.   

Investment plans

The company said it has continued to reinvest free cash flow into upgrading infrastructure and “advancing dispensing automation” to enhance performance and make its branches more resilient. 

Two key focus areas for investment have been the installation of 24/7 prescription collection kiosks – installed in 99 pharmacies as of March, up from 77 last year – and investing in hub and spoke automation to “streamline operations, improve efficiency and support future scalability”.

Day Lewis said its ambition is to be “the pharmacy destination of choice locally for prescriptions and services” and grow its international business – which includes supplying medicines to oil rigs and cruise ships and generated £12.7m in 2024-25 compared to £8.3m the year before – as well as diversifying investment “into other pharmacy-related sectors”. 

It is also aiming to “improve purchasing mix of medicines between generic and branded products,” control costs and “increase professional services income,” said the directors. 

The directors said that despite the contractual settlement still failing to cover pharmacies’ running costs, the English pharmacy sector “represents a secure, growing market” underpinned by increased need for prescription drug dispensing and a government that wants to see “community pharmacies expand and improve the range of services they offer to relieve the burden on an overstretched NHS”.  

Related: ‘Incredible milestone’: Day Lewis celebrates 50 years in business

‘No limit’: Day Lewis open to all stores being ‘co-owned’ by pharmacists