Independent Thatcham Pharmacy replacing Lloyds in Burdwood Centre officially open

The Lloyds pharmacy at the Burdwood Centre in Station Road has been taken over by an independent pharmacy.

Business partners Nishaan Sanjay Amin, 31 and Guillermo Marin Saborido, 36 recently sealed the deal.

It officially opened on October 27.

The pair - who are both fathers of two –worked as locum pharmacists but fancied a challenge.

Mr Saborido practised medicine in Spain and Italy prior to moving to England 11-years-ago.

He said rural areas in the UK are suffering the most in terms of pharmacy strains and closures.

Lloyds announced it was shutting 237 pharmacy sites within Sainsbury’s supermarkets earlier this year.

Mr Saborido said with the closure of big companies like Lloyds, this is the right time for independents to take control and support the community in a more patient-focused way, rather than commercial.

He said: “In Thatcham there is a need for a strong, strong pharmacy looking after their people.

“We have got enough experience and a very good background.

“We are very excited to offer the best we can.”

The business partners are keeping the team from the former Lloyds branch in a bid to offer continuity and familiarity.

“The team are lovely,” Mr Saborido added.

“They have been there for a long time and have survived a really unprecedented and unsettling time with Lloyds and funding cuts.

“With the stress they have gone through, they deserve better.”

His business partner Nishaan Sanjay Amin - who he describes as a wonderful businessman and an even better person - has already begun building a chain of pharmacies starting in Gosport.

“I started doing some work for him in his pharmacy [in Gosport] and we got on really well,” Mr Saborido said.

“At that time he had one branch and then he ventured out to a second one and a third one and a fourth one.

“So he started form nothing, he was a true inspiration for me.”

He described the partnership as love at first sight and said he looks forward to be a friendly and familiar face for patients and customers.