A Welsh Government programme offering tailored support to SMEs looking to expand has created its 6,000th job.
Business Wales’ Accelerated Growth Programme has been an enormous success since its inception in 2015. It reached the impressive milestone as Tim Morgan, a superintendent pharmacist, began work at Pontypool based pharmacy company PillTime.
PillTime is a digital NHS pharmacy founded to improve patient care and reduce NHS costs by helping patients take their medication on time, at the right time. Medication is organised into dose-specific pouches and delivered to their door, free of charge, aiming to help them stay healthy, and reduce medication waste.
Founded in 2016 by award-winning pharmacist Paul Mayberry, the company currently serves 11,000 patients and achieved a turnover of £3 million in its last financial year. Mr Morgan is the latest recruit to the 80-strong team, which is hopefully set to increase to 150 over the next year as demand for its service grows.
PillTime signed up to the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme in February 2018 to access expert business support aligned with its ambitious growth plans. The company has been assisted with business processes, property relocation, organisational development and recruitment, as well as investment readiness, all of which has proved “invaluable” according to Leighton Humphreys, Chief Financial Officer at PillTime.
He said: “The Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme has been very supportive of us. We have benefited from expert consultancy support in several key areas which we cannot praise highly enough.
“Having experts to call on who have “been there, done that” has helped challenge us as a management team. It has also allowed us to focus our strategic decision making on the areas that will have the biggest impact.
“I’m delighted that we are the company responsible for creating the 6,000th job, which is a great honour for our team. Tim is settling into the team well so far, and we are confident that our team will continue to grow over the coming months.
“As well as investing in our people, our focus over the next year will be investing in robotics. Currently, only 1% of the 1 billion prescriptions issued annually are processed via e-commerce, and we are positioning ourselves and our services to make us a key player in this space. We have ambitious targets for the next couple of years, and we are confident that with continued support from the AGP team, we will be successful in achieving them.
“I would encourage other businesses with high growth potential who are looking for support to apply for the programme. Since signing up, we have gone from strength to strength, and we are very grateful for all the help we’ve received.”