Bosses at the struggling chemist had reportedly failed to keep in touch for 10 weeks prior to the walkout in the Oxfordshire town’s Bury Street.

Fed-up staff shut up shop for the last time and left a notice on the shop window saying: “It is really hard trying to run a pharmacy without a pharmacist, or manager.

“As a Trustpilot review says, ‘like a pub with no beer’.”

Since then, the nationwide pharmacy has struggled to stap open in other areas of the country including the Isle of Wight, North Devon and Bridport in Dorset.

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And now Ian James and Rajnesh Mittal of FRP Advisory have been appointed as joint administrators for the struggling business.

The chemist has no more branches in Oxfordshire, but does have ones in Reading, Slough and Swindon.

Jhoots posted a pre-tax loss of £5,028,184 in the year ending December 2023, the most recent accounts on Companies House reveal.

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Last year, Allied Pharmacies acquired 129 branches of Jhoots to its portfolio.

Health minister Stephen Kinnock said in an urgent emergency parliamentary debate in October that it is “completely and utterly unacceptable if a business such as Jhoots is not paying its staff”.

“Unfortunately, there are some (pharmacies) that fall short of the standards that we expect, and sadly, the services provided by Jhoots are falling well below the mark,” he said.

Trade union, the Pharmacy Defence Association, estimated that more than £870,000 in unpaid locum fees was owed by Jhoots businesses to its members.

Before the Allied takeover, there were about 150 Jhoots pharmacies across the UK.