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STRONG growth, big revenue and savvy business choices made Good Price Pharmacy founders Anthony Yap and Hahn Luu impossible to deny as back-to-back winners of the 2013 Brisbane Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
The spectacular rise of the big box retailer continued unabated this year as revenue topped $207 million, up 15 per cent on the previous year's $180 million.
It is important to remember this is no overnight story; Yap has been carefully building this business since 2001, with the first Good Price Pharmacy arriving two years later at Cannon Hill.
"We still expect significant growth against this trend," says Yap. "We are looking for our 13th-consecutive year of double-digit growth and are aiming for just over 10 per cent growth (this year) to approximately $230 million (turnover)."
"It is important to remember the engine behind growth comes from the infrastructure behind the business," says Yap.
Luu, who has responsibility for the company's 750-strong workforce, implemented a company-wide training program, called the Good Price Academy and streamlined the payroll system as part of the HR overhaul. There is now an in-store trainer specifically focused on stock management.
"We have moved over the past few years from a predominantly company-owned brand to focused on franchising we realise with franchising comes demand for support and we believe investing in this support infrastructure will help the developing franchise network."
Focus was also applied to developing better category management systems, better in-store systems and procedures, a greater focus on advertising and promoting of key categories and products, while creating stronger partnerships with suppliers.
"Pharmacies are location specific, so we buy pharmacies in suitable locations when they become available and they become an affiliate and are put in the pipeline to become a branded store," says Yap.
Franchising began in 2009 we started franchising the brand to independent pharmacists to allow them to compete with other big retailers such as supermarkets and discount department stores.
"The Good Price Pharmacy brand is very retail focused, and it concentrates a lot of its marketing on its front of shop items.
Of course, all this was achieved with the support of the entire Good Price Pharmacy team.
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