Auckland pharmacist takes ‘calculated risk’ to open new pharmacy in Hobsonville

TAKING RISKS IN business is something Abdul Eraki is familiar with. He and a fellow student had taken out a lease on a pharmacy before they’d passed their internship more than nine years ago.

Last September, Mr Eraki sold his share of that pharmacy to his business partner to “take a little break from pharmacy”.

But clearly the quiet life doesn’t suit him as, almost a year later, he’s getting ready to open the North+West 7-Day Pharmacy in Auckland’s Hobsonville.

Opening a new pharmacy in an economic recession and with many smaller community pharmacies closing is a risk, but a calculated one, Mr Eraki says.

He first heard of a new medical centre opening in his local suburb of Hobsonville via a property and construction business he has. The doctors who owned the medical centre asked him to fit it out.

“Of course, I asked them if having a pharmacy in the centre was part of their plans. It was, but they hadn’t done anything about it at that stage. They just knew they needed a pharmacy there.”

That’s when Mr Eraki put his “hand up”, firmly putting an end to his break from pharmacy.

His property business has now fitted out the new pharmacy, scheduled to open in late August.

Part of the shop fit-out has been recycled from two pharmacies that have closed in the Auckland suburbs of Albany and New Lynn. Mr Eraki’s property business was involved in defitting these pharmacies. He asked if he could salvage some of the equipment like shelving so he could use it and save them disposal costs.

“We were able to recycle this equipment, essentially. We took some of their slat walls, some of their stands, some of the other equipment that was left behind. We were able to salvage quite a few things that looked pretty much brand new, or that we could fix up and make look new.”

Mr Eraki was warned that staffing his pharmacy would be tough as the pharmacy workforce is so stretched.

“A lot of my colleagues were like, ‘Man, you’re going to struggle staffing a pharmacy that’s open from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week’.”

But he put an ad on Facebook and was surprised by the number of applications he received.

So far, he has managed to find two pharmacists and three pharmacy technicians.

‘Price beat’ offer

The new pharmacy will be offering most of the clinical services available in pharmacy and will also offer a large natural-health product selection.

“We will offer a 10 per cent ‘price beat’ on all natural-health products.”

Mr Eraki knows he will never compete with the nearby Chemist Warehouse’s natural-health product range, but says competition is a good thing.

“They have their marketing strategy and their niche, and we’ve got our own. I think there’s room for both.

“They might do $20 million in turnover a year. We’re not going to achieve that, but it’s all about the bottom line. You know, so if our bottom line is if I’m taking home what is healthy for me, then it really doesn’t matter what the turnover [is].”