Wigan pharmacy changes hands after being in the same family for 60 years

Established in the early 1960s by Doug England, J England Pharmacy is a self-contained community pharmacy that dispenses more than 15,000 items per month.

Doug was joined by his son Warren in 1995 who recently decided to sell the business and retire.

The pharmacy has had several homes around Wigan over the decades and moved to its present base on Gidlow Lane in 1999, where it adjoins Beech Hill Medical Practice.

It will now be run by Millennium Pharmacy owned by Stuart Ellis.

Warren England said: “I am pleased that the legacy of the pharmacy business that my father founded in the 1960s has been passed on to such a safe pair of hands in the shape of Stuart. I wish him and his team the very greatest of success.”

Mr Ellis said: “I am hugely excited to be taking over J England Pharmacy. My interest in community pharmacy began at the age of 14 when I was working at a long-established family-owned pharmacy business, and so it is an honour to take on the legacy of this similar business which aligns with my own long-held values and beliefs around community pharmacy.

"I’d like to thank Warren for his openness throughout the process and wish him a very happy retirement.”

Jon Booth, pharmacy director at Christie & Co, said: “When we first met Warren and his wife Charlotte, they were having a tough time achieving a sale with their existing agent and Warren just wanted to retire - something he really deserved having given so much over the years to community pharmacy and the people of Wigan.

"Our fresh marketing approach soon yielded results; we were able to quickly identify a handful of potential buyers that the previous agent had overlooked.

"A deal was struck in under eight weeks with a committed and credible buyer and, whilst the transaction wasn’t the most straightforward at times, we were able to work closely with the buyer’s broker at Christie Finance to find innovative solutions to problems whenever they arose.”