Numark

Numark serve as a virtual head office for independent pharmacies on the high street across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. From Insurance services and own brand offering, to Brand Support deals, Numark is dedicated to putting their members and their independent pharmacies first. We spoke to Carol Burgess, Commercial Manager – Approved Suppliers at Numark to give us an overview of the organisation’s offering.

“At present we have over 4,000 members we help to run their pharmacy inside and out. We offer everything from the commercial deals to customer excellence tools and cutting edge IT solutions. It’s all about offering our members the essentials they need to successfully run their business at the end of the day.

“We also have a dedicated and trained pharmacist and technician team on the other side of the phone for members to call with any enquiries they may have regarding their business, staff and customer enquiries.”

Numark partnered with Croner just over three years ago and in that time has provided their members with access to expert HR, employment law, health & safety and pay & reward guidance.

“We used to outsource a lot of our business support. Many years ago there was no insurance offering to our members so it made sense to bring an insurance provider on-board. When we partnered up with Bennett Gould for our Professional Indemnity Insurance offering, we added the support for HR and health & safety via Croner’s services.”

Croner work closely with Carol and her colleagues to provide a variety of services for their members. This involves providing informative materials, regular updates, and insightful industry content on major employment law updates. We have also attended events such as the Numark Surgery where we are able to speak to members face to face and answer any questions they may have.

“When a member takes out Professional Indemnity Insurance, they receive a welcome pack that details all the essential information available to them not limited to but including all of the Croner services at hand.

“We highly rank the Croner advice line among our list of member benefits. Especially the HR advice and guidance as members are qualified pharmacists and not necessarily HR professionals. If they have an enquiry relating to employment law and want to address and handle it correctly, they have a dedicated helpline to speak to someone who is qualified. They also have a 24/7 online portal with all the information they may need.”

Outsourcing expert advice in this way allowed Numark a renewed focus on other areas of their business, as Carol explains:

“I would say access to the advice line has freed up our own resources. If an insured member calls us with a HR or employment law query, we are able to direct them to Croner and feel assured our members will speak to a qualified expert who is dedicated and willing to help.

“Having the HR and employment law advice is a unique selling point for members compared to our competitors.  Having Croner as a partner is great as the brand is well recognised and trusted by business owners. It has definitely broadened the scope of benefits and resources for Numark members.

“Overall, members seem to be very satisfied with Croner’s services and we look forward to working with them in the future to better our offering with our members.”