Capital injection helps to beat Covid-19
Pharmacy
£365K
Growth
Homecare Pharmacy Services
Pharmacy
Founded 2013
Founded by pharmacist Jason Baskind, Homecare Pharmacy Services is an established, award-winning community pharmacy that dispenses and delivers medicines to 40 care homes in North Yorkshire and surrounding areas.
After tragically losing his mother to Covid in March 2020, Jason was personally motivated to help defeat the pandemic. So, when vaccines became available in late 2020, he set out to open a new pop-up vaccination centre to protect his community.
Since opening in February 2021, the Knaresborough centre has delivered over 150,000 vaccinations and inoculated everyone available for a jab in its area. During a six-week peak at the end of 2021, staff worked 12-hour days to vaccinate over 1,300 people per day, seven days a week. The Homecare team also visited 30 care homes to vaccinate their residents and set up small pop-up clinics in Harrogate and RAF Leeming.
Because of this success, it was asked by the NHS to take over a second vaccination centre in Northallerton in January 2002. In recognition of its lifesaving work, Homecare was hugely proud to win the 2022 North Yorkshire Community Pharmacy Heroes of the Year award.
“We were delighted with how much working capital RxBridge offered. It more than covered our start-up costs and helped us survive the first few months until NHS payments took the strain.”
Their challenge
For any new venture, the main challenge is raising enough working capital to cover high upfront costs. After finding a prime location with enough space for a socially distanced layout, Homecare needed significant funding to set up the pop-up centre.
But like all pharmacies, Homecare is paid by the NHS in arrears, so payments for vaccinations made in February, would not arrive until April. It needed both upfront and ongoing working capital to fully equip the new facility, pay its workforce and pay the bills until NHS payments could make up the shortfall. Because the pandemic was rapidly evolving, it also had to be agile and respond quickly to changing government demands, so it needed funding that was equally flexible and responsive.
Our solution
With years of experience in the pharmacy sector, we’ve designed a finance facility specifically for pharmacies based on NHS receipts rather than traditional sales. By quickly and automatically extracting NHS statement data, we can make a faster, more accurate risk assessment that gives pharmacies access to more capital as soon as they need it.
This meant we could offer Homecare a flexible, revolving line of credit up to four times the value of its monthly NHS income, with no restrictions its use, no fixed payments, simple online access and the freedom to only draw down (and pay for) the amount they needed.
More funding than other lenders (up to 4X monthly NHS receipts) and:
- Pharmacy specialists who understand your business.
- Flexible credit line with no set repayments.
- Only pay for the finance you use.
- Revolving credit grows with you.
“We’ll use RxBridge again anytime because they’re pharmacy sector specialists. Traditional lenders and other invoice finance providers don’t understand our business.”
So why RxBridge?
Homecare chose RxBridge because we’re experienced specialists in the pharmacy sector. Unlike other lenders, we’ve created a revolving credit facility specifically for pharmacies. Our unique tools assess NHS data alongside trading patterns to give a truer picture of a pharmacy’s income and potential growth, so we can lend higher amounts with greater confidence. But that doesn’t mean our decisions are all made by algorithms. At RxBridge, you’ll collaborate with real people who understand your business and want to support you.
Success breeds success
Homecare opened its vaccination centre to save lives, but its success has had knock-on benefits for the business and the brand. With its high visibility and positive community standing, the business has hired a new superintendent pharmacist and built a strong team equipped for the future. After its positive vaccination experience, Homecare is thinking of expanding into face-to face services to have more direct contact with its community.
While life now feels relatively normal again and we’re all learning to live with Covid, the pharmacy is still delivering booster jabs and has no plans to close either of its vaccination centres yet, just in case of another spike. Nobody knows what will happen next, but Homecare Pharmacy Services is ready for whatever the future holds.
Ready to talk?
Find out how our financing can work for your business.
Call: +44 (0)20 7313 8088
or email: info@tradebridge.com
