From your first pharmacy to the day you hand over the keys.
Around twenty years working with pharmacy owners. We understand script volumes, GP mix, wages ratios, goodwill lending, lease risk, the ownership rules and the capital gains position that decides what your exit is really worth — and we work across every one of them.
Pharmacy is a regulated, cashflow-driven business. Advice should reflect that.
Three things make pharmacy different from almost any other small business — and each one changes the advice.
Only pharmacists can own it
In Victoria, ownership is restricted to registered pharmacists and eligible companies, with a limit of five pharmacy businesses. Every structure, partnership and trust has to be tested against those rules before anyone lends against it.
Goodwill is most of the price
Most of the purchase price is goodwill, so lenders assess cashflow first and security second. The lease, the add-backs and the wages ratio decide the loan — not just the script count.
Good pharmacies sell quickly
Quality pharmacies are often under offer within days. Buyers who have their equity, structure and pre-approval sorted before they find the business are the ones who secure it.
Four stages. We work across all of them.
The advice that helps a first-time buyer is not the advice that protects an owner heading for the door. Select a stage.
Buying a pharmacy is a structuring decision before it is a finance one.
Get the entity, the ownership split and the debt structure right at settlement and you protect a decade of tax outcomes. Get it wrong and you spend that decade unwinding it. We sit on your side of the table from the first information memorandum to the day the keys change hands.
The year-round work that keeps the business defensible.
Compliance is the floor, not the offer. What owners need is a set of numbers they trust monthly, benchmarks that tell them whether 13% wages-to-sales is good or a warning, and a tax position planned in April rather than discovered in October.
Growth is a funding question and a property question at the same time.
A second store, a banner change, a refit, or buying the building you already trade from — each moves your debt capacity, your tax position and your eventual sale price simultaneously. We model all three before you commit capital, then arrange the funding to match.
You will sell, hand over or wind down exactly once. It has to be right.
An exit is decided years before it happens — in how the entity was set up, how the add-backs were documented, whether the lease has term left, and whether the CGT concessions are still available. We work backwards from the outcome you want and manage the transaction when it arrives.
One team, every angle.
Engage the divisions you need. Each can be engaged on its own.
Structure, tax & payroll
Entity structures that satisfy the ownership rules, year-round tax planning and award compliance.
Explore the division →FinanceGoodwill & fit-out lending
Acquisition, second-store, refit and premises lending from a panel of 60+ lenders.
Explore the division →AdvisoryValuation & due diligence
Benchmarking, due diligence on purchases, valuation and sale readiness.
Explore the division →PropertyLease & premises
Lease negotiation and renewal, and buying the building you trade from.
Explore the division →Senior people who know pharmacy.
You are advised by the partners. Paul leads structuring, tax and valuation; Blake leads lending, premises and wealth.
Founding partner with more than 40 years across accounting, finance, property and business advice. Paul leads structuring, tax and valuation — the decisions that quietly determine what a business is worth a decade later.
17+ years in finance and property, with a Bachelor of Commerce and Law and a Master of Property. Blake leads lending and premises strategy, is a senior auctioneer, and is the authorised representative behind Hedley Capital.
Questions pharmacists ask us
Twelve months before you expect to buy is ideal. That gives time to confirm your equity and borrowing capacity, settle on a structure that satisfies the ownership rules, and get pre-approval — so you can act quickly when the right pharmacy appears.
Only within the limits of the Pharmacy Regulation Act 2010 (Vic). A company must be an eligible company, with all directors and all legal and beneficial interests in its shares held by registered pharmacists, and trust interests are caught by the same rules. We test every proposed structure against the Act and the Victorian Pharmacy Authority’s guidance before an application is lodged.
It depends on the price, the stock and working capital required, the lender’s policy on goodwill and the security you can offer. Our acquisition funding calculator gives an indicative starting point, and we can give you a proper answer once we see your position.
If they are doing a good job, you may not need to. Many owners come to us for one thing — a second-store loan, a valuation or a lease — and stay because the advice connects. We will tell you honestly if we think your current arrangement is working.
Yes. Staged buy-ins by an employee pharmacist are a common succession path. We structure the buy-in, value the tranches and arrange the buyer’s finance where needed.
Useful before the first meeting.
Buying a pharmacy in Victoria: the 12-month runway
Ownership rules, equity, due diligence, structure and finance.
Read the guide →Insight · FinanceWhat lenders look at in a goodwill submission
The five numbers credit teams run.
Read the note →ToolAcquisition funding calculator
An indicative view of the equity needed to buy a business.
Open the calculator →Hedley Partners is a group of separately regulated businesses. Accounting and tax services are not provided under an AFSL or ACL. Credit is provided under ACL 517192 (LMG Broker Services Pty Ltd). Financial advice is provided through Hedley Capital under AFSL 499010 (MFG Advice Pty Ltd). Real estate services are provided under Victorian estate agent’s licence 088916L. Information on this page is general only. Full details: Licensing & disclosures.
Buying, growing or selling? Start with twenty minutes.
Tell us where you are in the pharmacy lifecycle and we will tell you what we would focus on first.