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Well Pharmacy made a pre-tax loss of £20.75m in the year to June 30, the company’s latest accounts reveal.

The Companies House filing for Bestway National Chemists – the registered name for the UK’s second largest pharmacy multiple – show that in 2024-25 pre-tax losses were £6.85m higher than the year before, while its operating loss grew from £10.3m to £18.4m.

Well Pharmacy’s total loss for the year was £15.6m after a tax credit was applied. Net liabilities stood at £21m as of June 30, 2025, up from £5.5m the year before.

This was despite revenue climbing from £728m to £736m, with Well directors describing a “challenging year for the business” in their financial report. 

“The retail community pharmacy sector remains under significant financial pressure, as has been well documented,” they commented, explaining that the funding boost announced in the sector’s 2025-26 contractual settlement has been offset by factors like rising employment costs.

Nonetheless, the directors stated: ‘We continue to invest in our sector, showing our commitment to pharmacy and offering accessible healthcare services to local communities.

“We believe in the future of community pharmacy and its importance to UK health.

“We have successfully grown revenue in the year and despite the recent challenges, we remain optimistic we will return the company to profit in the fiscal year 2026.” 

The accounts reveal that Well operated 715 branches as of June 30, 2025, down from 733 the previous June. 

Prescription volumes took a year-on-year tumble from 74 million to 72.9 million.  

“Further pharmacies have been identified as non-core to the operational criteria of the business,” Well’s directors said, adding: “The company has initiated a programme of disposals to new and existing operators through a competitive tender process.”

But the company still wants to retain the “critical mass” of stores needed “to remain as a leading provider of prescriptions and services,” they said, adding that they still look to acquire new sites “where reasonable value exists”. 

Alongside NHS funding, workforce shortages and the need to overhaul “ageing IT,” one of the key challenges cited by Well’s leadership team is the increased threat posed by the independent pharmacy sector: “The nature of the funding environment for the sector has meant that the competitive landscape presented by independent pharmacies has intensified, particularly in the provision of core dispensing and healthcare services.”

Well said it “must continue to focus on growth of its market share across these services” in the face of these market share challenges. 

The accounts for Bestway Healthcare – a holding company comprising the pharmacy chain’s activities as well as parent company Bestway’s pharmaceutical wholesale division – show that entity made a pre-tax loss of £26m in 2024-25, an improvement on the £32m loss it made the year before.

Bestway Health CEO Greg Pateras told P3pharmacy: “The business made progress, growing revenue despite disposing of a number of stores.” 

“Losses improved year on year, but the fact that the business still made a loss reflects the inadequacy of the funding increase in the year given the increases to NI, Living Wage and other costs.

“I would like to thank all our colleagues for their support in delivering great service for our customers. The business performance is improving and momentum improved in the second half of the year as we focused on service delivery in stores and accelerating growth in our wholesale brands.

“We know there is still more to do, but the actions we have taken over the past year - including investing in digital capability, modernising our store estate and improving our supply chain - are helping to put the business on a stronger footing. We are seeing the benefits of these changes come through and are confident in the trajectory we are now on. We remain committed to building a resilient, customer-focused business for the long term.”