Sander van der Werf / Shutterstock.com
Several employee-owned community pharmacies are set to become Chemist Warehouse stores as part of a partnership between Greenlight Healthcare Limited and Chemist Warehouse, one of Australia’s largest pharmacy chains.
In an announcement made on 5 May 2026, it was confirmed that Greenlight had signed a memorandum of understanding with Sigma Healthcare, which owns Chemist Warehouse.
As part of the agreement, Sigma has acquired a 75% interest in “a number of stores”, with 25% continuing to be held by Greenlight.
“Sigma will license the Chemist Warehouse brand and intellectual property, and provide retail support, including ranging, store layout, inventory management and marketing support. GreenLight will provide the dispensary and professional services requirements and back-office support,” the announcement said.
Greenlight is an employee-owned pharmacy group founded in London in 1999, which owns 22 community pharmacy stores in and around London.
Chemist Warehouse, which calls itself “Australia’s largest discount pharmacy chain”, operates more than 500 pharmacy stores in Australia with stores in other countries, including Ireland.
The announcement said: “The parties intend to identify existing Greenlight pharmacies and where appropriate develop or relocate these into Chemist Warehouse stores.
“Phase one of the JV [joint venture] will focus on rebranding and developing up to five stores initially with the option for more stores in phase two should these prove successful. The first site under the JV will be in Hoxton Street, north-east of the city of London,” it added.
Vikesh Ramsunder, chief executive and managing director of Sigma Healthcare, commented: “Sigma is currently well placed to navigate the global geopolitical challenges impacting many businesses.
“We are currently not seeing any material disruption in our ability to source or deliver products or services at this point.”
Chemist Warehouse has recently seen an uplift in sales in Australia, contributed to by growth in sales of GLP-1 inhibitor drugs, “with the average basket size of a GLP-1 customer 40% higher in units,” Ramsunder added.
In its annual report and financial statements for the year ending 30 June 2024, filed with Companies House, Greenlight reported a 2023/2024 turnover of £14,156,341 and an operating loss of £533,863, which it said was “below expectations albeit in difficult trading conditions for the industry as a whole”.
It also identified risks and uncertainties around increased wages, inflationary cost pressures including utilities, fragile supply chains and reduced NHS funding for dispensing.
However, the report added: “Since year-end, trading performance has improved with new private and NHS income streams as the UK continues to transition to a more service focused business model in community pharmacy. The new pharmacy contract has commenced from April 2025 and will address some of the shortfall in historic funding from central government. Following a challenging 2023/2024, the future prospects of the company appear positive with a clear opportunity to realise sustained growth under improved contractual arrangements.”
Also in the report, auditors noted “the group’s dependence on continued support from the bank loans following a breach of bank covenants after the year end and shareholder’s loans”.
“The group expects that this reliance is forecasted to continue, with shareholders anticipated to address any financial shortfall. However, there is a material uncertainty that, if this shareholders’ support is not obtained in the forecasted period, it may cast significant doubt on the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern,” they added.
