7 September 2024
By Bryan McCarthy
bryan@TheCork.ie
Soon there will be eight “McCabes” Pharmacies in Cork. The shops already exist, but are trading under the LloydsPharmacy brand.
The City pharmacies which will rebrand as McCabes Pharmacies are on the Grand Parade, the Lough Shopping Centre, Hollyhill Shopping Centre, the Glen, Ballincollig, while the County businesses are in Youghal, Midleton and Charleville.
The branding on the shopfront and interiors will be the most obvious change for customers, while behind the scenes McCabes is boosting its digital health offerings. Already there is an “upload prescription” section of their website where a patient can upload a camera phone of a paper prescription, with the paper version still required before the medicines can be collected.
Prescriptions and medication orders will not be affected, and service will continue as usual with the same dedicated pharmacy teams providing their patients with a high standard of care and advice.
McCabes Pharmacy CEO Sharon McCabe with LloydsPharmacy Managing Director Jan Pieter Hallema and Retail Director Brian O’Keeffe
In relation to McCabes entry into Cork and other areas, Sharon McCabe, CEO of McCabes Pharmacy, said:
“We are excited about the future and the opportunities this rebranding brings as we become Ireland’s leading pharmacy brand with 112 pharmacies in addition to providing greater access nationwide to Ireland’s largest online health pharmacy website and app which boosts excellent customer ratings for service including next day delivery and click and collect.”
Jan Pieter Hallema, managing director, LloydsPharmacy, added: “Whilst our patients will still see the same familiar faces from the teams they know and trust, this new more resilient pharmacy network combines the strengths of both brands allowing us to enhance our services and continue to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”
Back in April of this year, The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) cleared the change, which involved one group purchasing another. Under competition law, the CCPC assesses mergers and acquisitions notified to it to protect competition. In competitive markets, businesses are incentivised to compete on price and improve the quality of their products and services. CCPC merger investigations examine the potential impact a proposed deal may have on consumers, including changes to price, consumer choice, quality and innovation.
However, the Lloyds to McCabes name change could be confusing for some?. In recent years another well known chemist Sam McCauley dropped its shortened its brand name to just McCauley, meaning that going forward in Cork there will be two competing pharmacies with similar names, namely McCauley’s and McCabes, both names beginning with “Mc” folowed by the letter “C”. McCauley’s have a smaller presence in Cork, with just five branches which are at Douglas Court Shopping Centre, Blackpool Shopping Centre, Mahon Point Shopping Centre, Market Green Shopping Centre in Midleton, and McCurtain Street in Fermoy.