Case Study: Blooms The Chemist


The Company

For more than 40 years, Blooms The Chemist has been a valuable source of pharmaceutical services throughout Australia and is committed to the wellbeing of local community citizens and their families. The company has more than 100 stores across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory, and Western Australia.


Peter Green is an experienced pharmacist with a successful track record of building strong community focused pharmacies. Peter owns and operates Blooms The Chemist in Maitland, assists with other Blooms the Chemist pharmacies in the network and is a board member of Blooms The Chemist Management Services. 

Andrew Crawford is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Blooms The Chemist and has been with the business since 2017.



As part of a recent client survey, Peter and Andrew provided feedback on their experience of working with Aretex and the benefits of the service being delivered to the stores across the network. What started in 2014 as a one store engagement has evolved to be a mandated service to all stores in the network, delivering consistency and accuracy across the group, something that was not possible prior to partnering with Aretex.



The Problem

Prior to hiring Aretex, each Blooms The Chemist store had their own bookkeeping solution, typically done by the pharmacist or retail staff in the store. The ‘do-it-yourself’ bookkeeping model had several challenges as a direct result of the varying levels of expertise and ability to deliver timely, consistent and accurate reporting. Multiply 100 different stores with 100 different approaches to “reconciling” Xero, and the quality of information varied wildly.


Andrew described the original process as “manual and fragmented” with varying levels of internal controls in place. There were too many inconsistencies in the accounting and bookkeeping processes, increasing the risks of cash leakage and making decisions based on poor quality information. Instructions provided to the stores were misunderstood and/or misinterpreted, and there was simply no way of getting a consistent process delivered across the network, resulting in costly rework and error-prone shortcuts. And given that bookkeeping was not the primary focus or training of in-store staff, it was left to the last minute, delaying the lodgement of BAS and negatively impacting working capital management.  And more importantly, without a standard process for recording information and creating month-end adjustments, the information was not useful for benchmarking and making network decisions.


At store level, the timely lodgement of monthly BAS directly impacts the working capital available to pay suppliers and other obligations. With the do-it-yourself model, meeting these lodgement deadlines in order to receive the GST refund prior to paying suppliers is simply not possible.



The Aretex Solution

After trialling Aretex in the larger Maitland based pharmacy, Peter found that it worked efficiently and could see the benefits of applying the best-practice solution to every store in the network.


Aretex has worked very closely with the leadership of Blooms The Chemist to make sure that the solution is not just best practice, but tailored to meet their needs. The Aretex team also invested in fully understanding the pharmaceutical industry and the specific needs of the network.

Implementing the Aretex solution has delivered the following benefits to Blooms The Chemist:

✔ On-time lodgement of BAS for the entire network, resulting in GST refunds being received prior to the payment of monthly suppliers, dramatically improving working capital and reducing the cost of short term cash requirements across the network.

✔ Trained accountants following best practice to ensure the financial information is updated in real-time.

✔ Consistency with the data entry has improved the quality of the information used to run the business.

✔ Freed up in-store staff to focus on customer service

✔ Eliminated late-night and after-hours bookkeeping and the race to catch up before compliance deadlines.

✔ Cost-effective, on-time compliance.

✔ Integrity of data entry delivers accurate financial information.

✔ Dedicated team that operates as part of the business.

✔ A scalable solution that seamlessly grows as stores are added to the network.

✔ The ‘Blooms Bookkeeping Solution delivered by Aretex’ is a key differentiator when new pharmacies are added to the network.
✔ Effective communication and support.

Client Testimonial

"Aretex provides an essential service to Blooms the Chemist support office and our large pharmacy network. Like any service delivery business, our aim is to maximise the quality of the services that we provide to our network pharmacies and minimise the overhead impact. Aretex is a critical partner in our network service delivery, providing incredible attention to detail in the bookkeeping, BAS and financial reporting for each of our stores. By utilising the Aretex best practices and processes, we also have the comfort knowing that the network financials are all consistent and ATO compliant.


Aretex is extremely easy to work with, which is an important consideration when choosing the right outsourcing partner. Communication is seamless and they provide the right mix of expertise to get the job done on time, every month. Our dedicated teams are available on-demand, with separate teams providing services to our support office and each of the stores, making communication effective and efficient. And when we need him, Chris is always available to help us get the outcome we need. It's great to have such a passionate, professional partner helping us serve our network."

James Bowmaker

National Finance Manager – Blooms The Chemist Store Network

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