Small chains, big visions

In this issue, Drug Store News previews its DSN 2016 Yearbook, featuring our annual PoweRx company profiles. The full report will be available this summer with exclusive company rankings and profiles of every company in our Top 50. One thing that stands out and is a common theme among all companies featured in the report is that big and small, chains and independents alike, across every class of trade, community pharmacy is transforming more and more from simply a medication-dispensing model to a retail healthcare services provider model.



In the spirit of the 2016 presidential campaign season, we have branded it “Change to Win.”



Two strong examples of that are Ritzman Pharmacy and Benzer Pharmacy — two small chains that are big on innovation and growing their businesses in unique ways.



“If you look at the coffee industry 20 years ago, you got your coffee at Circle K or 7-11. There was no experience expected; you just walked in, got your coffee and left. Starbucks redefined what that experience was for people,” Ritzman Pharmacy COO George Glatcz said.



Ritzman wants to be the Starbucks of community pharmacy. “What we’re doing is changing that community pharmacy experience from being a transactional experience to being more of a healthcare experience,” Glatcz said.



That strategy comes to life in the company’s newest store in Rootstown Township, Ohio, which opened in March. The store is a major component of the company’s brand refresh, which began in fall 2015, around a vision to “pioneer vintage care,” Glatcz explained.



Meanwhile, Benzer Pharmacy is a small chain with a big vision for the future. Today, the company operates about 60 stores — it finished 2015 with 53 stores in nine states and total sales of about $125 million, up almost 40% over 2014, according to company reports — and CEO Alpesh Patel wants to have 600 stores by the end of the year. To get there, Patel will employ a three-pronged strategy, he told DSN, personally purchasing as many as 30 stores himself this year, courting equity partners to invest in other stores and add them to the Benzer network, and a potential merger that would see Benzer acquire an existing pharmacy operator.



As the chain scales up, Patel envisions layering on additional service offerings, such as specialty pharmacy. At press time, the company had just launched a new pet medication website at BenzerPetMed.com.



For more on these two innovative companies, look for the DSN 2016 Yearbook coming this summer.