Big hitter backs KZN BRAND

Post Covid-19, the sale of medicines and healthcare products will no longer hinge on just price. Instead, customers will value personalised services that independent pharmacies are best equipped to provide, writes Shirley Le Guern

Already there are indications that pharmaceutical retailing has come full circle. Initially, the rise of big-box retailing and giant pharmacy chains with large but impersonal outlets put pressure on margins, prompting the demise of many small village pharmacies.

However, now that customers know how vulnerable they are, they will look for something more interactive, believes local entrepreneur and pharmacist, Lynda Bryant who began to roll-out her Thrive brand with the opening of a second store in Ballito just days before the national lockdown in March.

“Health and wellness – especially immune support and healthy living – will become even more of a priority post-Covid-19. People will focus on looking after their health. We are already ideally positioned to offer professional advice and have the right model for what consumers will be looking for – one place to meet all healthcare needs, sound advice, supporting local, personal relationships and convenient locations outside of mall environments,” she says.

Because it takes time to get a pharmacy licence, Thrive opened its new Ballito store as a stand-

ABOVE: LYNDA BRYANT’S VISION IS THAT MORE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNITIES WILL BENEFIT FROM THE THRIVE PHARMACY CONCEPT.

Developing Thrive was always around the fact that I wanted it to be in more places than just Kloof. I felt it had legs and there were more South African communities that would benefit from this model

alone health shop in March and planned to add a dispensary afterwards.

Undaunted by having to close the doors of her new outlet almost immediately, Bryant now believes lessons learnt will make the Thrive brand stronger.

“Like most small businesses, we will not come out unscathed. Our Kloof pharmacy continued trading at a huge cost. We had to quickly respond, adapting to various changes in regulations and encouraging social distancing to keep our staff and customers safe.

“We only reopened again in Ballito during Level 4. Without having a chance to officially launch the store and brand to our Ballito community, it has been challenging to remarket and ‘relaunch’ in the ‘new normal’ trading environment,” she explains.

However, both Bryant and her business partner, former group CEO of JSE-listed Famous Brands, Kevin Hedderwick, believe that the Thrive brand which is founded on three passions – retail pharmacy, business and people – will be even more relevant now.

Working in the pharmacy during lockdown, Bryant quickly discovered that people needed reassurance, personal advice, support and service. “We quickly adjusted our business model to provide deliveries, offer calland-collect options and other methods of getting access to medicines more easily. Now we will be expanding our vitamin ranges, eco-friendly cleaning solutions and health food offerings.”

Bryant started her career with a pharmacy degree from Rhodes University, an internship at a corporate pharmaceutical company and an 18-month stint in retail in Kloof.

She then joined Illovo Sugar, but the pull of retail remained so strong she regularly returned to the dispensary after hours to work as a locum.

At the age of just 26, a chance meeting and job offer from owner of the then National Road Pharmacy alongside the M13 in Kloof in 2004 proved an important turning point.

“I joked that I would only come across if I could buy the pharmacy. One evening, we sat on the floor downstairs and thrashed out the numbers. I bought 50% of the pharmacy in May 2005 and owned the entire business by December of that year.”

She soon introduced changes to the dispensary, stayed open until much later and added and trained staff. “With the right team and the loyalty of the community, we grew despite challenges such as single exit pricing and the rise of the corporates.”

Bryant’s pharmacy won a national best community pharmacy award in 2013.

“Even then, I couldn’t help thinking that something still needed to be different. Many people were coming into the pharmacy and complaining about their lifestyles and suggesting that they may be taking too much medication.

“We found ourselves advising on different vitamins and supplements. I’d always had a vision of creating a space that brought health and wellness and pharmacy together. There is a place for everything – for homeopathy, supplementation and alternative medicine as well as traditional allopathic solutions.”

Bryant investigated different offerings and decided to rebrand her business. She settled on the name Thrive.“It meant to prosper, to flourish and to bloom and embodied everything about us. Our tagline – better than well – is exactly what we stand for.”

Double-digit growth followed and feedback from customers who found the array of choices in the supplements section at mega pharmacies daunting, and valued the accessibility and parking outside the Kloof store, suggested she was on the right track.

Thrive also began prioritising supporting local suppliers while sourcing as much as possible both organically and naturally.

Adding a second outlet was the obvious next step. “Developing Thrive was always around the fact that I wanted it to be in more places than just Kloof. I felt it had legs and there were more South African communities that would benefit from this model.”

Hedderwick stepped in as an equity partner to help take the business to the next level. His input is based on an impressive track record that saw him grow a small family business trading as Steers Holdings in 2000 with a market capitalisation of R65-million into a R16-billion JSE-listed company by 2016.

“As part of my venture capital ambitions, I decided to invest in this company. We plan to grow the brand, starting with KwaZulu-Natal,” he says.