Avicenna Buying Group
Mark Shepherd is a Commercial Manager at Avicenna, responsible for pharmacy acquisitions. With a CIMA qualification and nine years of experience in finance, Mark has worked in various financial controller roles in companies such as Hargreaves Services plc and The Explorer Group. Mark also has experience as a management accountant and financial reporting analyst at companies like Total Produce Plc and Cineworld Cinemas Ltd. Mark holds a Masters in International Management and a BA in Accounting and Business from the University of Sunderland.
Avicenna Buying Group
The Avicenna group believes in a better pharmacy, and aspires towards this through operations across two core areas; the Avicenna Support Group & Avicenna Retail Pharmacy. The Avicenna Support Group began in 1994, when a group of likeminded pharmacy professionals came together to maximise their profits by securing better deals through collective buying. Nearly 30 years later, and Avicenna provides leading support across buying, regulations, operations, NHS & private services and training to a community of over 1250 members. By empowering these members to run their pharmacies at their best, Avicenna is not just enabling the pharmacy of today - but is contributing to the better pharmacy of tomorrow. The second area of Avicenna’s operations is in Retail Pharmacy, where we are investing in an estate of retail pharmacies across the UK. This is part of our commitment to growing value for our shareholders, and developing the expert knowledge that can benefit our members. So far we have established an estate of over 135 pharmacies across the UK, and continue to seek out new opportunities. Collectively, we are the UK’s largest independent pharmacy support group.