Med head | A conversation with Mark McAuliffe, managing partner of Apothecary by Design in Portland
Mark McAuliffe
Photo/Jan Holder
Founded: November 2008
Number of employees: 13
Startup costs: $2.5 million
Projected revenue, year one: $6 million
Projected revenue, year two: $12 million
Contact: 84 Marginal Way, Ste. 100, Portland
774-5220
www.apothecarybydesign.com
What is Apothecary by Design?
Apothecary by Design is an integrated pharmacy. We have a regular retail pharmacy where we take all the regular insurance and we offer the same generic drugs as Walgreens or Rite-Aid, and we have a specialty pharmacy that takes care of people undergoing either acute or chronic intensive pharmaceutical treatments such as transplant patients and women going through reproductive health issues or other specialty areas that are not something you’d get at a typical pharmacy.
One of our pharmacists is trained in specialty pharmacy and is one of only 50 pharmacists in the country to be certified by the American College of Pharmacists in fertility care. We also have a reproductive endocrinology nurse in the specialty area to help train and educate patients and help in the third part of our pharmacy, which is our compounding lab, where we can make drugs in a strength you can’t get commercially. In addition, we also have a nutritional and supplement store that sells high-end vitamins, probiotics, health and beauty aids, homeopathic treatments and herbs.
And then we have the café, which is a full-service café where we offer coffee and specialty drinks, fruit smoothies, breakfast items, and we offer lunch. We put the coffee shop in because the pharmacy of old had soda fountains and the new pharmacy has a coffee shop as a welcoming area. We spent a lot of time on the design of the store to make it welcoming.
Why did you decide to open Apothecary by Design?
We have five partners, three of them are pharmacists and two are business-oriented. We opened Apothecary by Design to create a unique space in the health care industry in terms of offering not only pharmaceutical treatments but also alternative treatments that are more clinically based. We also wanted to bring back the real service that the local pharmacy can provide in terms of knowing you as a patient and helping you not only with your medications and your nutritional needs but also helping you through your insurance issues and questions. The state of Maine did a survey and the cheapest place to get your medications is at a locally owned independent pharmacy and part of the reason is that we can spend the time that it takes to try to work through the insurance system with you and try to find you the most cost-effective way to get your medication to you. We have a private space for patients to come in and talk about their health needs or their medication or nutritional needs and we do education there as well.
How did you finance this business?
In addition to equity that the owners put in, we have financing from Bangor Savings [Bank] and a loan from FAME, the Finance Authority of Maine.
What’s been your biggest challenge starting this business?
The biggest challenge is two things: Getting our name out there so people know we’re here, and the second is the economy being as down as it is right now, this is a tough time to open a new business and we’ve obviously had to account for that.
How has the economy affected your business and business strategy?
It’s affected it on a couple of fronts: One is in the area of our nutraceuticals and vitamins and supplements, that’s all a cash-based business and so as people reconsider where they’re spending their money, that’s an area that can get impacted.
People have higher deductibles and co-pays, so the volume of prescription sales in the U.S. has slowed significantly and that obviously impacts us.
The third area is in our women’s reproductive health area. A lot of reproductive health treatments are not covered by insurance, so when the economy’s down, people put off pregnancies or expenses in fertility treatment options. So we’ve been increasing our advertising to get more people aware of the store and we’re offering incentives for people to transfer their prescriptions to us. We’ve also been looking at additional specialty areas that we had planned to go into but might go into earlier to get new sources of revenue and growth for the business.
Interview by Mercedes Grandin
New Ventures profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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