Celesio buys Sainsbury’s pharmacies

FRANKFURT, July 29 German drugs distributor Celesio has agreed to buy Sainsbury’s pharmacy business for 125 million pounds ($195 million) via its British chain LloydsPharmacy.

J Sainsbury Plc (LON:SBRY) and Celesio AG (ETR:CLS1) owner of LloydsPharmacy Limited, have today announced the formation of a strategic partnership that will see LloydsPharmacy acquire J Sainsbury’s pharmacy business for £125m.

Under the terms of the deal, Lloyds Pharmacy will acquire 281 pharmacies in total, including 277 in-store pharmacies and four located in hospitals, all of which will be rebranded as Lloyds Pharmacy. It didn’t disclose how much rent it will get for each location.

Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe said: “Pharmacy services are incredibly popular with Sainsbury’s customers and we are delighted to be teaming up with LloydsPharmacy to develop our offer”. Its Managing Director Cormac Tobin commented: “Sainsbury’s is a fantastic fit for LloydsPharmacy”.

The deal is expected to complete by February 2016.

Sainsbury’s is opening 10 Argos concession stores after finding last year that a quarter of its shops have under-used space, while it also plans to expand its non-food offer.

Data from Kantar Worldpanel yesterday revealed that Sainsbury’s has overtaken Asda as the UK’s second largest supermarket with a market share of 16.5 percent, although its sales fell 0.3 per cent in the period.