Leicester chemist's new wholesale arm to double sales

A pharmacy says it is set to double turnover to £3.6m and create up to 10 jobs this year after the launch of a new wholesale business.

Yakub Chemist, in Highfields, Leicester, has opened the division, based at a nearby warehouse, thanks to a £70,000 overdraft from Lloyds TSB.

The company said it was also about to set up a website providing cut-price fertility treatment, as well as an online private doctor service.

It already has an online pharmacy, Medicines2u.com, which supplies medicines and nutritional supplements to customers worldwide.

Business development manager Mohammed Yasin Sheikh said: "When we established Yakub Chemist our aim was to provide the local community with access to affordable medicine and high-quality healthcare advice.

"With the new wholesale division, we're now in a position to ensure chemists across the UK can purchase the products they require at a reasonable price.

"This will probably create jobs. It could be five, or it could be 10. We are already looking to move the division into a larger premises.

"In 2010, we will be growing our international presence with the launch of a new website, fertility2u.com, which will provide cut price fertility treatment medicines to an international customer base."

The company also offers a private patient home delivery service and supplies medication to 35 nursing homes across Leicestershire.

The business was founded as a pharmacy, in Hartington Road, in 1988.

The wholesale division is based at a separate building on the same street.

It employs 20 staff across the two sites.

Yakub secured the £70,000 overdraft facility from Lloyds TSB Commercial's healthcare banking arm to help with the new division's start-up costs.

This brings the total support provided by the bank to more than £750,000.

Phillip Bateman, relationship manager for Lloyds TSB Commercial, said: "Yakub Chemist is a company whose ambitions are rightly on a global scale.

"Through its website, it is now servicing international customers and the creation of this warehouse, near its existing pharmacy, was the logical progression for the business."

Yakub is not the only fast-growing Leicester chemist with an online presence.

Chemist Direct, of Evington, which sells a range of cut-price pharmacy products via the internet, has reached sales close to £15m since it opened two years ago.