Jason Herrington has been employed by Best Value Pharmacies in some way since August 2006.
The pharmacist is in charge of Best Value’s Country Day location after working his way up from the company’s Ridglea North site as a pharmacy technician and going to pharmacy school.
Nearing his 20-year anniversary with the business, Herrington doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon — despite his daily 40-minute roundtrip commute from Burleson.
“Even if I lived an hour away, I probably wouldn’t make a change,” he said.
Best Value is one of a few independently owned pharmacy businesses in North Texas with more than a dozen locations. Local pharmacy chains offer the human-centric interaction patients seek while also providing the structure pharmacists need in the ever-changing landscape of the business, industry leaders say.
“There’s definitely benefits to having that smaller chain pharmacy, franchise type of environment,” said Ronna Hauser, senior vice president of policy and pharmacy affairs at the National Community Pharmacists Association. “Several of our members do own multiple stores, and they’re able to see success from growing the number of stores that they own.”
Local chain pharmacies’ business models vary. Some owners see it as valuable for the company business model to expand their footprint quickly, while others expand only when the opportunity arises.
Hauser said pharmacy owners in the association had an average of 2.3 locations as of October. North Texas, however, has fewer regional independent chains, she said.
Best Value Pharmacies is one of them. Started in 1969, original owner Ron Cheney opened his first location in Granbury.
Over the years, he purchased other local pharmacies in Texas towns, said Steven Maddox, CEO of Best Value.
Best Value now has 12 locations in Texas. The majority sit in rural communities, but the company also has three Fort Worth storefronts, including Herrington’s.
The most recent expansion was the acquisition of a pharmacy in Hico over a decade ago. Maddox said company leaders only look to expand if it makes sense monetarily, largely based on community growth and patient population breakdowns with insurance.
“It’s pretty hard to just go and throw up shingles in a place and say, ‘I’m going to have a pharmacy here,’” he said. “It doesn’t always work.”
ReNue Pharmacy’s business model is a little different. All eight of its locations sit within North Texas.
The company started in 2007 and expanded based on affiliations with clinics, explained Raj Chhadua, principal managing partner of ReNue Pharmacy.
The business grew quickly at the beginning, Chhadua said, reaching 15 locations at one point as they opened in “pharmacy deserts” where access to care is lacking. Despite having to close several storefronts in recent years, Chhadua said business looks good.
“Our group is very bullish about independent pharmacies and independent pharmacy growth in the future,” he said.
A Lone Star gap
In the Lone Star State, the majority of small chain pharmacies are either in rural areas or have locations with different names under the same ownership, Hauser said.
Part of the reason is the process of expansion. Many pharmacies expand similar to Best Value, purchasing an existing pharmacy from a business owner looking to retire or move on from the property.
Some keep their old names after the acquisition.
“If an owner that has ownership of multiple stores were to go in and just say, ‘We’re rebranding all these stores under the name I want,’ you lose that local flavor and that local recognition,” Hauser said.
Such expansion is also mostly in rural areas.
Maddox notes that the younger generation of pharmacists often see corporate pharmacies — such as CVS and Walgreens — as the ideal starting spot for their careers. That means many small rural pharmacies have no one to leave their business to.
“That’s when some of these multi-store owners can come in and help them with a solution,” Hauser said.
Chhadua said the lack of independent pharmacies is unique to metropolitan areas in Texas. Cities on the East Coast have more family-owned pharmacies that became regional powerhouses in the industry, he said.
“If you go to Jersey with all these chain pharmacies, you’ve got three to four generations of pharmacists that are building that out,” he said. “In Texas, you have little pockets in rural areas, but in the metroplex, you don’t have that generation-buildup into pharmacy chains.”
Small business at heart
Small chains allow pharmacists to do what they do best — connect and serve with the community.
Prior to becoming CEO of Best Value, Maddox worked as a pharmacist at the company’s Decatur location. Maddox notes that during his time running the pharmacy, he never worried about contracting with insurance and software companies.
“It does free them up to stay out of the business fray of it,” Maddox said of Best Value’s pharmacists.
Herrington finds that he is able to serve patients better through the freedom given to Best Value pharmacists. The company allows pharmacists in charge to run their storefronts in their own ways in order to become assets in the community.
For example, the Best Value Country Day location Herrington runs works with local dentists to provide annual tuberculosis testing. He also hosts a health fair at a local retirement community.
It’s not just good pharmacy work. Herrington said staying patient-centric throughout the community is good for business.
“Building a relationship with one person and them talking about us to other people really does help us grow in that manner,” Herrington said.
Being patient-centric is a cornerstone of independent pharmacy practice, regardless of whether or not the business is part of a chain, Chhadua said.
He mentioned wraparound services such as immunizations and diabetic education as examples from ReNue Pharmacy.
“They’re the ones that are filling the gaps that the large-chain machines can’t,” Chhadua said of independent pharmacies. “They’re the ones taking health care to a more personal level.”
Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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