The wholesaler AAH tells P3 about the relaunch of its offering to community pharmacy

As AAH announces a rebrand, visualised in a new company logo, Celesio’s sales and marketing director, speaks to P3 about activity in the company, and what independent customers might notice that’s different.

“It’s much more than a new logo,” says Nigel Swift. “It’s about how we do business and how we support our customers.” The new logo, which still incorporates the All About Health strapline, is described in a statement from the company as “a more striking red with warmth in a modern style” and incorporating a grey circle “to represent AAH’s 360-degree integrated support service.” Part of this integration is the bringing together of the parts of the company, such as Trident and Enterprise, and customers now have a single contact with Celesio, says Mr Swift, all part of a stronger focus on customer service.

Pharmacy teams are also getting used to seeing white delivery vans from AAH, rather than the familiar red, in a move that is all about temperature control inside the vans – apparently it is easier to maintain temperature inside a white vehicle, a huge positive.

Listening to customers

The current relaunch is the result of a project that’s been running for two years to improve AAH’s offering, says Mr Swift. He feels that there was work to be done, particularly in the face of an increasingly competitive market.

“Most wholesalers had become complacent, and the reality is that now we are all fighting for one pot of the business. The one differentiation that we’ve got is around customer service, and we’ve refocused on that.

“The prime thing for me is to be out with customers. I really wanted to understand our customers.” With the solus MSD deal won, AAH is now delivering to every dispensing point in the UK. “So now its time to add some more value to the market,” says Mr Swift. “We want to position ourselves to be real champions for the independent pharmacist.”

Results of changes that have been brought in at AAH are now starting to have an impact, he suggests. “Over the past three to four months we’ve been growing market share, and that’s really positive. Where we’ve been historically second line, people are moving over to be first line with us. And people are saying that they are really enjoying doing business with us.”

New to view

An important part of the company’s offering is the Careway partnership programme, plus a full franchise option. The company now has 135 Careway partnerships with pharmacies, he reports, claiming that the scheme is driving footfall into the pharmacies involved. Pharmacies can use the scheme for business support – accessing support in merchandising, for example – or take out a full LloydsPharmacy franchise.

“We’ve been sharing across independents what’s working well for us in LloydsPharmacy, what categories are working well in the pharmacy market; what we’ve done with pain and skin and the growth that we’ve got from that.”

The company also launches a new own-label brand for independent pharmacy customers, also named Careway, which replaces the previous Vantage range. It includes 147 lines, and the products have been chosen based on sales in LloydsPharmacy. “We looked at what was really selling in LloydsPharmacy, and we know that the margin is good,” says Mr Swift. The offering is “across the board” and includes pain, first aid and skincare, he says.

In addition, the LloydsPharmacy Betterlife range of products for independent living has been repackaged without the LloydsPharmacy brand, so that it can be stocked by independent pharmacies.

Ready to deliver

Mr Swift is optimistic that independent pharmacies will see a difference in the service they are receiving. “This year we are growing market share, which is phenomenal for us,” he says. “We have a healthy budget in place and a challenge to grow the business and we are hitting that. So we are really happy where we are. But I think it’s taken a long time to get to where customers are really happy.”

Measures for customer care are in place, he says, which make it easy to see “what we are getting right and what we are getting wrong”. “We are trying to deliver what they want,” he concludes.