With the appetite for pharmacy acquisitions stronger than ever, it’s never been more important to have the right financing available to you. With an unsecured TradeBridge facility, you can draw on up to 10X your weekly PBS receipts. Ensuring you have the capital and the confidence to keep up with the speed of the acquisition market. To understand in further depth, we spoke to a leading Pharmacy Buying Group in NSW, to understand how they are leveraging TradeBridge’s revolving credit facility to grow their own group and support independent owners.

Who are TradeBridge?

TradeBridge are a long-established market leader in the UK, and have made payments of over $5 billion to thousands of pharmacies across the UK and Australia. More and more Australian pharmacy owners are using a flexible credit line from TradeBridge to fund acquisitions, store refits or extra cashflow. Endorsed by the former National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, George Tambassis says: “This facility from TradeBridge has been built from the bottom up specifically to meet the needs of our sector.”

Their challenge

Expanding your pharmacy portfolio requires fast access to capital, both for the acquisition and the set-up cost of the new premises. While banks play a role, their funding limit creates barriers for many looking to purchase additional locations.

“The bank will lend to 80% of the valuation and then the rest you’ve got to fund yourself. I do have money I could use, but most of it is tied up in other investments.”

And so, relying on personal savings or traditional borrowing alone, can slow down growth by acquisition strategies.

At the same time, this manager was exploring ways that the banner group could help its members acquire pharmacies without having to put down cash up front.

“What we wanted was a model where members didn’t have to finance any of it themselves. We were looking for a way members could join without the need for cash up front, we would then manage the store for them and away we go.”

Our solution

It was during this research that the group came across TradeBridge. “I liked the way TradeBridge did it, it was nice and simple compared to others I have seen. The process of setting up the facility was refreshingly
straightforward too.”

Stand outs from the research were that the facility is directly linked to PBS receipts – something every pharmacy owner understands and works with daily. And importantly, that the funding is for any use and so can be used for acquisitions, modernisation, investing in technologies or additional services or to manage cashflow.

Through TradeBridge’s innovative alternative financing this owner was able to secure additional funding to put towards acquisitions (up to ten times his weekly PBS receipts), with transparent fees and a simple, streamlined
application – so he had a decision and a funding limit in days, not months. “TradeBridge don’t need to ask multiple questions on how the business operates. With over 1,000 pharmacies funded across Australia and the UK, they understand the industry and the PBS cashflow process.”

The outcome

With the revolving credit facility in place, acquisitions became faster and more certain. The best opportunities In the Australian pharmacy sector are snapped up quickly owing to the competitive landscape. Having flexible funding ready to go at short notice was a game-changer for this manager.

“Good pharmacies go just like that. Literally within 24 hours. You’ve got to be ready to act, and the people that you’re dealing with need confidence that you can make that purchase.”

To find out more about TradeBridge, visit the website at tradebridge.com/en-au/healthcare/pharmacy