In January 1972, Tom Reid was elected to take the place of Howard Evans who had resigned his post of Chairman of UniChem Ltd. This meant that everything was now in place for a new start.
At the age of 17, Peter Dodd had been a British Schoolboys Boxing Champion, and he was certainly the right man to lead UniChem’s fight-back.
He now improved the team at Head Office. In March, John Speller was recruited as General Sales Manager, from a position in the textile industry.
In September, Bill Hart, who had been previously involved in the recruitment of new members, replaced Mike Worby as Marketing Manager, to be responsible for all of the company’s purchasing activities. Finally, at the end of the year, David Walker was recruited to replace Alistair McLeod as Data Processing Manager. The Head Office management team was now complete, and the stage was set for real growth.
At first, the most important message to be put across to customers, was that UniChem was on the right track. Members had to be able to trust that, providing they supported the company with a good share of their purchases, especially prescription items, then their annual cash rebate on over-the-counter purchases would be very advantageous. To lend support to this message, a surprise cash interim rebate of 2% was declared. This was based on the profitable trading carried out in the first six months of 1972, and this payout was amazingly successful in the bid to rebuild the members’ confidence.
As a final touch to get things moving, a well-respected PR agency, Daniel J Edelman, was engaged to improve the image of UniChem, both inside and outside the pharmacy world. Their top executive, David Davies, began to handle UniChem’s account in person, and over the next few years worked very hard for the cause.
At the end of the first year of the fight-back period, annual sales had reached £9.7m against a budget of £9.1m. This was backed up by a profit figure of £128,000 against budget of £76,000. These eminently satisfactory figures gave a huge fillip to staff at all levels, and made their efforts and sacrifices worthwhile.
Two years previously, in late 1971, Peter Dodd had enlisted the services of a marketing consultant called Joan Freeman, with whom he had previously worked when at Crittalls. She had been asked to design a new public image for the company and had come up with the idea of using white vans, with green and black facings, and a prominent logo in the form of an arrow. Her work now began to bear fruit, and by June 1973 this logo had become well known as the “Pointer to Value”, and was accepted as being synonymous with the new, thrusting UniChem. All at once, the narrow world of pharmacy wholesaling stopped laughing at the idea of a co-operative, and began to realise that they now had a serious competitor on their hands.
Recruitment picked up well, and by May 1973 membership had exceeded 900. In the same month, Peter Dodd and Ray Monaghan completed negotiations with Neil Cross of the Industrial & Commercial Finance Corporation (now 3i), and a substantial loan was agreed. This relationship served UniChem very well in the years to come. At last, good news was coming in !
To improve their image, it was decided to call UniChem operational locations, “branches” rather than warehouses or depots. Members were invited to “at homes” at their local branch, in order to meet the staff, and to see how their orders were assembled. This sort of gathering proved to be amazingly popular, and helped to remind members that they, and no other type of shareholder, owned the company.
A specially designed stock control scheme was introduced for the members. It was geared to improve stock management of the “top 1300 lines” in a typical pharmacy, and by the end of 1973, more than 400 members were taking part. Each participant was equipped with a high-quality stock book and encouraged to adopt a strict regimen with regard to purchasing. Those members who ran the scheme well, benefited from a greatly reduced stockholding, whilst simultaneously improving their “in-stock” position.
The company’s Marketing Department began to make great progress on three fronts. Firstly, its Purchasing Division was able to obtain special terms from many major OTC suppliers, which enabled a far more attractive range of monthly “special offers” to be made available to all UniChem’s members. These offers, with their reduced retail prices, and extremely professional-looking show material, helped to make the members much more competitive in their market place. Secondly, its Sales Division began to put together a good range of “own-label” OTC products which were very profitable to both UniChem and its members. Undoubtedly the star turn here was the range of “all-in-one nappies” which at one time had 5% of the total UK market, a staggering success for any private label product. Naturally, this market share fell once the leading players saw the full potential of this market sector, but it was still to remain a real money spinner. Thirdly, its Sales Force, well led and highly motivated by John Speller, became far more professional, and, with some greatly improved recruiting procedures, was able to bring the membership level back up to a much more acceptable level.
As a result of these activities, 1973 saw total sales turnover reach £18 million, with net profit up to £305,000. There was no doubt that the company was prospering at last.
In 1974 five UniChem Regional Committees, later to rise to seven, were set up. They were made up of selected members, and the relevant branch managers, from the particular region. They met every quarter, and each meeting was attended by at least one senior executive from Head Office. Their purpose was to act as a forum for the exchange of ideas, and to ensure that the members’ best interests remained paramount.
For the next six years, from 1973-1978, an increasing tide of professional marketing activity, coupled with an increasing level of service from the branches, saw UniChem’s sales turnover increase by approx 50% year on year, until the £100 million barrier was breached in 1978. Owing to very effective cost control, the growth in trading profit was even steeper, as it rose from £156,000 in 1972, to over £4 million in 1978. During this time membership grew from 900 to over 4,000. This was truly a period of staggering growth, fully justifying the executives’ belief that the “co-operative” form of company trading could lead to UniChem becoming a major force in the pharmaceutical industry.
At this time, to be a member of the Crown House executive team was a really exhilarating experience. It is no exaggeration to say that they almost felt as if they were taking part in a form of crusade, for the future of independent pharmacy.