THE PAST

John Whitworth opened his first pharmacy in 1967.

Within ten years he had five shops and was looking for a new challenge. John found it when as Doncaster Pharmaceuticals Limited, he became one of the first wholesalers of generics and the largest non-manufacturing generic wholesaler in the UK.

In the 80's as Whitworth pharmaceuticals he began to bring in parallel imported medicines from Europe.

During these years John retained two of his pharmacies, which enabled him to keep in touch with the community sector.

In 2000 John sold his wholesale businesses and went back into community full time acquiring 32 pharmacies, stretched across the North of England from Blackpool and Liverpool in the West to Newcastle and Skegness in the East.

THE PRESENT

When John died very suddenly in 2007,  his family took up the challenge to build on his legacy.

Whitworth Chemists Ltd now employs over 250 managers and staff, many of them long serving.

Since January 2007 we have moved to new premises in Scunthorpe with our I.T., office and buying departments all under one roof.

Our own warehouse ensures we have a competitive edge with our supply chain.

These central support functions together with our team of area managers and staff coordinators ensure that our pharmacists and their staff receive all the support and training necessary to run a professional pharmacy.

All our staff are trained to nationally recognised standards and encouraged through annual performance reviews to treat learning as an integral part of their role.

Pre-reg students are given an intensive training programme with full support and in most cases we can offer help with accommodation.

THE FUTURE

We now have a young and enthusiastic management team to take us forward to meet the demands of the changing role of pharmacy.

As a family owned business we have the advantage of being able to react quickly and positively to these changes and  our pharmacists are encouraged to input ideas and work with external bodies to meet the needs of our patients.

We have embarked on a programme of refurbishment with the introduction of nursing home suites and centralised collection and delivery services.

The future holds many challenges for pharmacy and we believe, working together with all our staff, we can meet them.