Rotorua pharmacy marks 50 years of serving community

Bernard Reilly, who opened Central Pharmacy in 1972, with current director David Honore. Photo / Laura Smith

Bernard Reilly is proud of the Rotorua pharmacy he opened 50 years ago, a business he has seen grow and grow.

He and current director David Honore attribute its success to being able to adapt and modernise throughout those five decades, as well as the support from the community and the long-serving staff.

They have just marked 50 years since Reilly first opened the Central Pharmacy doors in 1972. The Wellington pharmacist made the move to the city to do exactly that, having spent time working in the field in England and Masterton.

It was in England he married his wife, who was from Rotorua.

Reilly recalled how there was only one staff member working with him when he opened. The first month’s turnover comprised $2352 from retail and $728 from prescriptions.

Gradually more came in over the next few months, and just over a year after opening the monthly turnover sat at $6542. Three years later, in 1976, it was $13,822.

And two and a half years on from that the annual turnover was $247,000.

But Central Pharmacy had found moving with the times kept it not only afloat, but growing. Reilly said it “just grew and grew.”

First, the pharmacy opened on Haupapa St, just down from the corner of Amohia St and next to Central Clinic, where most clients were enrolled.

In the next 10 years three more shop assistants were hired, a dispensary technician joined, along with Honore who became a partner in 1982 - a time when there were 21 pharmacies in the city, most within the CBD. Now, he said, there were 14.

By 1987, the team had outgrown the space.

The original Central Pharmacy opened in 1972 on Haupapa St Photo / Supplied

So the move was made to hop across the street, still on the corner of Haupapa and Amohia Sts.

With larger premises, things got exciting. Reilly made the most of it and began importing a range of stock, predominantly from China and Hong Kong. Products ranged, and Reilly figured this was the business’s point of difference, with stock coming in by the container load of cosmetics, toys, giftware and suchlike.

Reilly enjoyed this side of the business and took pride in making its wares affordable, made possible by the quantities he imported and deals made with big companies.

There were several big sales days a year, which were so popular the number of customers in the store at one time had to be limited.

Reilly retired from the pharmacy in 2000 and focused solely on the importing aspect.

Pharmacy now was very different, he said, and medicines in the early days were about 20 per cent compounded, mixed and pilled individually.

“That’s all gone ... ”

Andy Drysdale joined Honore as the new partner in 2006. By the time he joined, a new robot dispensing unit was added.

There was growing demand from rest homes to better provide medicines safely to patients, and sensing a gap in the market, Honore and Drysdale invested in the unit to help Rotorua and Taupō rest homes with this.

Both thought the dispensary was too small, the number of staff and work was increasing and the stock inventory was huge, and so once more the team moved across the road - again on a third corner of Haupapa and Amohia Sts.

Bernard Reilly in the present Unichem Central Pharmacy building on Amohia St. Photo / Laura Smith

The third move was in October 2009 into a building incorporating Central Health Medical and Mokoia X-Ray, and Honore believes the site, close to the hospital, attracted other health-oriented businesses and services to set up shop in surrounding streets.

He believed it was able to adapt to a patient-centric way of working to fit district health board requirements for pharmacies, while still providing a “unique” retail experience in-store.

Both partners strived to continue the way the pharmacy had worked in previous years by keeping community-focused and affordable, having seen financial hardship and patients not able to afford their medication.

Now retired pharmacist Bernard Reilly pictured in The Daily Post after a revamp at the pharmacy in 1981. Photo / NZME

These days there were two robotic dispensing machines and a large dispensary, with six full-time pharmacists and four trained or training dispensing technicians, as well as retail staff and a photo lab manager.

Honore said his team was fantastic, including the long-serving staff members, such as Erika Bak who joined 30 years ago, and Mark Lamb who joined about 20 years ago.

“We could never have achieved what we have done without such wonderful customers and fantastic staff we have employed over the years.”

Bak first joined the team as a retail manager in 1993, and 30 years later works as the operations general manager. She had worked through two shop refits and one of the moves.

For her, no day is the same and she loves it, even if it is not always easy.

Unichem Central Pharmacy Rotorua partners David Honore (back, left) and Andy Drysdale and photo lab manager Mark Lamb, stock and logistics controller Tracey O'Neill (front, left) and operations general manager Erica Bak. Photo / Laura Smith

“My first Christmas I said I’d never do it again. Years later I’m still here and loving it.”

She found satisfaction in how the team managed to help on a day-to-day basis; the people it was serving were not at their best, being sick.

“If we can make it as easy for them as we can we’ve done well.”