19th March 2024
Important announcement – restructure at McDowell Pharmaceuticals
(Includes new message below about your customer code)
We write to inform you of a planned restructure at McDowell Pharmaceuticals. We are responding to the positive challenges of growth and taking some action to plan for that.
For over 20 years we have been committed to serving the needs of pharmacies across Ireland and have continuously worked to enhance the service we offer.
Now we are separating McDowell Pharmaceuticals off into our subsidiary company, which will be dedicating solely to wholesale activity. We are going to make use of our new, purpose designed facility for this new company. We are bringing additional regulatory expertise into the ranks of the new company. We are also planning IT developments to help improve our customer experience.
McDowell Pharmaceuticals has been the trading name used by John McDowell Limited. On 1st April 2024, the business known as McDowell Pharmaceuticals will transfer fully into the subsidiary company John McDowell (Lisburn) Limited. The subsidiary company has a wholesale licence in place ready for this transition.
Our experienced team will continue to serve your needs and website address, contact emails, phone numbers and the method by which orders are shipped will remain the same.
We will be notifying you with further details as we get closer to the transition date. At this stage, we want to detail the changes from 1st April 2024:-
• McDowell Pharmaceuticals will move under a new legal entity, John McDowell (Lisburn) Limited, separating our wholesale and retail pharmacy businesses.
• Payment for invoices raised up to 31st March 2024 will be due to the old company John McDowell Limited.
• Payment for invoices raised from 1st April 2024 will be due to the new company John McDowell (Lisburn) Limited (new bank details will follow)
• Payment by SEPA should not require any change at all.
• Payment by cheque to ‘McDowell Pharmaceuticals’ should not require any change at all.
• Payment by BACS will require the use of the new bank details ONLY when starting to pay for invoices raised from 1st April 2024 (at end of May 2024)
We will do our best to make this as simple a transition as possible for you, but we will need some approvals to be given by you and we will need further information to be shared with you as part of a proper due process. You will receive further communication in the coming days as regards how you can authorise us to transfer your account.
In the meantime, we want to flag up that your customer code will likely change. We have been doing some maintenance on our customer codes to make them more streamlined. Not all codes will change, but look out for these changes, as they might affect yours.
• If your customer code ends with the digit ‘1’ it is going to be dropped
• If your customer code begins with ‘Z1’ it is going to be dropped.
These are the two main changes. So, here are some examples. If your old customer code was:-
• Z1SAMPLE it will become SAMPLE on 1st April 2024
• Z1SAMPLE1 it will become SAMPLE on 1st April 2024
• Z4SAMPLE it will not change on 1st April 2024
• Z4SAMPLE1 it will become Z4SAMPLE on 1st April 2024
If you still are unsure what your customer code will change to, if it is to change at all, please do make early contact with us, so that you know well in advance of 1st April.
Your support of McDowell Pharmaceuticals continues to be appreciated by our team, and we look forward to continuing to grow our business with you.
Thank you
Philip Gilkinson
Managing Director