pharmaceuticals healthcare beauty community healthcare headquarters manchester united kingdom area served united kingdom key people john nuttall ceo tim davies coo tony smith cfo products community pharmacy number of employees circa 7000 parent bestway group subsidiaries bestway medhub well careplus website www.well.co.uk well formerly the co operative pharmacy is the largest independent pharmacy business and the third largest overall pharmacy chain after boots the chemists and lloyds pharmacy except in wales where well is the biggest chain overall in the united kingdom . following months of speculation the co operative group revealed in july 2014 that they had come to an agreement to divest the pharmacy business to the bestway group for 620 million . the sale was completed in october 2014 and bestway were given a licence to continue using the co operative brand for 12 months . in 2015 bestway began to rebrand the company as well . contents 1 history 1.1 the co operative pharmacy 1.2 bestway group 2 references 3 external links history edit the co operative pharmacy edit a former branch of the co operative pharmacy . the co operative pharmacy was previously the trading name of national co operative chemists part of co operative group healthcare based in rochdale 1 and belfast co operative chemists a wholly owned subsidiary operating in northern ireland . established in 1945 national co operative chemists traded in areas without a regional society pharmacy although some independent societies such as the midcounties co operative also operated their own in house chemists under the co operative pharmacy brand after it was introduced in 2007 . in 2001 the co operative pharmacy pioneered the use of braille on the packaging of own label medicines and in 2012 it became the first retail pharmacy chain in the uk to become carbon neutral . 2 the co operative doctor was an online diagnosis and treatment system . 3 in 2011 the co operative pharmacy teamed up with the clinic.com to provide clinical and medical input . the clinic.com s medical services were provided by freedom health which is registered with the healthcare commission . 4 in february 2014 after suffering a 2.5 bn loss for 2013 the co operative group announced that it was to start exploring options to sell their pharmacy business along with other businesses in their portfolio . bestway group edit the co operative group agreed to divest the business to the bestway group for 620 million in july 2014 . 5 the sale was completed in october 2014 and bestway were given a licence to continue using the co operative brand for 12 months . on 10 february 2015 during an event held in birmingham it was announced that well would become the new brand for the pharmacy business and that all 780 branches would have all reference to the co operative pharmacy removed and replaced with well by the end of october 2015 . 6 references edit an industrial and provident society registered in england and wales under the companies act 1985 no. 12714r voinea anca 24 august 2014 . dispensed the co operative pharmacy s rich and caring history . co operative news . retrieved 12 january 2015 . about the clinic the co operative pharmacy retrieved 25 august 2013 pharmacy launches online health services . co operative news . 12 may 2011 . retrieved 12 january 2015 . ben marlow 18 july 2014 . bestway cash and carry empire snaps up co op high street pharmacies . the telegraph . farey jones daniel 10 february 2015 . co operative pharmacy to become well in 780 store rebrand . marketing magazine . retrieved 21 march 2015 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to the co operative pharmacy . official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title well pharmacy & oldid 740005169 categories pharmacies of the united kingdompharmacy brandshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameterscommons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 18 september 2016 at 13 34 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view