£1.5 billion garnered
Lloydspharmacy has announced a record turnover of£1.5 billion as it focuses on becoming a 21st century healthcare provider.

Turnover grew by 11.6 per cent for the year to December 31, driven by healthcare services expansion and demand for affordable medical electrical products.

The healthcare retailer, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Celesio, increased its services for Primary Care Trusts by 67 per cent. Last month, it launched its comprehensive cardiovascular test in conjunction with Birmingham PCT (Retail Week, February 23).

It carried out more than 1 million free diabetes screening tests and more than 400,000 free blood pressure screening tests during the year. Prescription processing was up 12 per cent to 122 million.

The number of pharmacies rose from 1,527 to 1,556 - 1,430 of which have consultation areas and 308 are co-located with GP surgeries.

Chief executive Justin Ash said: 'We made significant progress during 2006 by focusing relentlessly on health and continue to make our organisation more efficient and responsive to individuals' changing health needs.'