Woolworths boss promises he’s not here to ‘disrupt’ pharmacies

However, Woolworths’ offer has a number of hurdles to clear. Wesfarmers already owns a 19.3 per cent stake in API and said it will vote against any takeover offer from the supermarket chain.

Woolworths may also face some competition issues with its bid given that the company’s stores are already major sellers of health and beauty products. In his letter, Mr Banducci also sought to quell pharmacists’ worries over the product crossover, saying that supermarkets and pharmacies have fundamentally different “shopping missions” from each other and therefore would not overlap.

Alongside his attempts to allay any “misplaced concerns” from pharmacists, Mr Banducci also used the letter as an opportunity to pitch the benefits that Woolworths could bring to API, including investing in wholesale distribution and supply chains and helping transition the business to focusing more on its digital and convenience offerings.

“In that context, using our extensive experience in areas such as digital, loyalty, payments, analytics and, importantly, privacy we will work with API to support their community pharmacy partners, helping them thrive in the growing health and wellness sector,” he said.

Mr Banducci and Woolworths have been in contact with the Pharmacy Guild since the announcement of its API bid earlier this month. Woolworths is currently in the process of doing due diligence on its API bid and is likely to make a binding offer to the API board in the coming weeks.

It’s expected that once the supermarket does so, Wesfarmers will likely use its rights under its initial bid to match Woolworths’ offer, leaving it up to the API board to decide which company they’d prefer.

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