By Neil Trainis

The online pharmacy Chemist4U has secured £12 million in financing from the equity investment company Pitalia Capital.

Anil Pitalia, the head of Bolton-based Pitalia Capital, said he decided to invest because of the “huge growth potential” in Chemist4U’s next-day delivery of medicines service. He also said he was impressed with the online pharmacy’s weight management platform myBMI in helping “tackle the obesity crisis.”

Chemist4U, which is part of JCCO Healthcare, has been looking to grow its operations and recently acquired a 40,000 sq ft property in Skelmersdale to centralise its operations.

It also plans to increase its workforce from 120 to 150 employees within 18 months to handle the increase in its monthly orders. Chemist4U handles 190,000 orders a month and its turnover is set to reach £29 million in the 12 months to the end of September, up from £21 million in 2021-22.

Chemist4U and myBMI chief executive officer James O’Loan (pictured) said Pitalia’s funding will “turbocharge” growth.

“Our plan is for Chemist4U to become one of the biggest NHS dispensing facilities in the country as well as support partners with our outsourced dispensing services which is our fastest growing division,” said O’Loan, who insisted the investment will allow myBMI to expand its weight management services.

“We review the patient digitally, we check their NHS summary care record to make sure the medicine is safe for them and we write to their GP to let them know we’re having a private consultation with them for this medication,” he said. “We then provide them with the medicine and guide them through this weight loss journey.”

O’Loan said he and his business partner, chief operating officer Ricardo Laverty, had not been searching for investment until they met Pitalia.

“We’ve had plenty of investor interest but because we were profitable, we didn’t feel the need to rush,” said O’Loan, who revealed Pitalia helped him acquire the property in Skelmersdale “and wanted to get on board as an investor to turbocharge the growth.”

O’Loan also said he had been impressed by the success of Pitalia’s company SpaMedica, which provides cataract surgery to the NHS.

“As soon as I met Anil I really connected with him. He’s a healthcare professional like myself and he has already been hugely successful with SpaMedica,” O’Loan said.

Pitalia Capital managing partner John Davies said: “The margins in the pharmacy sector are so tight that some pharmacies are failing. The only way to make it financially viable is through the diversification of the service/product offering and automation at higher volumes, and C4U now has the infrastructure and fire power to deliver this at a significant scale.”