Life Pharmacy Group

About Life Pharmacy Group

Life Pharmacy Group is a group of 11 regional pharmacies located in rural NSW and the ACT, providing exceptional health and wellbeing advice and support to local communities. They are locals, supporting locals. Their pharmacies provide a triage role in the primary healthcare system, employing 350 employees, comprising pharmacists, retail managers, dispense technicians and pharmacy assistants. 

Project “Uniform Refresh”

1. The uniforms were over 7 years old and simply put, needed a refresh. They were a grey colour and the feedback from our teams was that they wanted something lighter and brighter and more in keeping with the updated branding guidelines. Feedback was that the fabric of the old uniforms wasn’t overly durable, and employees found them quite hot in the summer months.
2. Their long-time supplier was a regionally based small organisation that made the Life Pharmacy Groups tunics to order, meaning long lead-times. As the orders were small, they could not achieve cost efficiencies nor production economies of scale. The several weeks lead time to receive the tunics became such a big factor that they sought a new supplier.

The New Branded Uniform Supplier Selection Process, and Key Criteria that had to be Met

Reliable production, faster lead-times, stock levels with the ability to store uniforms in a local warehouse, and cost per tunic were key criteria in selecting the new tunic supplier, as well as supplementary branded clothing. 

Pharmaceutical industry peers were consulted with to see who they used for their branded clothing as well as a search on google. Uniformity popped up as a supplier we hadn’t heard of before. Their online ordering platform stood out as something that would really improve efficiencies, as opposed to the current process of ordering via paper forms.

The Process of Working with Uniformity to create a new tunic for the Pharmacies

Upon their first introduction with Uniformity, Life Pharmacy Group felt confident that Uniformity could meet their production, storage, efficiency, and lead time challenges, and provide a competitive costing per item. 

“On our first call with Uniformity we were introduced to our account manager, who they explained would be our personal contact going forward. They then showed us all of the different options available in regard to styles and fabrics, and they really listened to what our pain points were.  They were also able to dip dye to any colour! The communication was clear, they were obviously experienced in this area, very customer-focused and from the onset we felt really confident they were going to be the right branded tunic and clothing partner for Life Pharmacy Group.”  Project Manager.

The New Tunic for the pharmacists and the pharmacy retail staff needed to be:

• Durable / Easy to Wash & Care For 
• Didn’t stain like the old one
• Comfortable to wear
• Breathability / “Light” Fabric / Didn’t get hot like the old one
• Fit for purpose
• Pharmacists (White Branded Tunic)
• Pharmacy Assistants / Retail Staff (Jute Green Branded Tunic) – 75% of the staff 
• Dip Dye to any colour – We wanted a unique “Jute” green to align with our branding

Uniformity provided a selection of sample tunics in standard colours so the Life Pharmacy Group teams could trial the different fabrics & styles. Staff provided feedback as well as suggestions for tweaks (e.g. longer sleeves, higher buttons for modesty, changes to pockets). There was a bit of back and forth and edits to the styles to ensure that every detail was addressed. It was decided that two different styles would be available to staff to allow them to choose a style they felt most comfortable in.

Once the final samples for each style were signed off, Uniformity then proceeded to dip dye 1000m of fabric in the bespoke “Jute Green” branding colour, so the fabric was readily available for future orders. The initial order comprised 200 tunics as the Life Pharmacy Group wanted to roll out the uniforms in a number of drops. The hem of the cross over tunic was then slightly amended in the second drop based on feedback from team members. Staff can now decide collaboratively which tunic style they prefer for future orders – crossover or zip.

The End Result

• Embroidered & branded, bespoke jute green tunics for pharmacy assistants have come in more competitively priced that the previous supplier. 
• Uniformity source white pharmacist tunics from their preferred supplier and embroider logos on the arm and chest before sending out to staff members. 
• The checked grey shirt for the pharmacy assistants is branded, also supplied by Uniformity
• Soft shell branded jacket, supplied by Uniformity
• Non branded clothing (Pants, Cardigans, Jackets, Skirts all now supplied by Uniformity, directly via them or sourced from partner suppliers) 

Uniformity now provides the group with forecasts of future uniform style and size requirements based on purchase history. “The forecasting component of the service is great; they now tell us what we need and when to order more.” Project Manager

“We were pulling our hair out about what to do with our old tunics. We have sites spread far and wide, so getting everything returned to a central location and them finding somewhere local to recycle them was proving to be difficult. We wanted to dispose of them in the most economical & planet-friendly way. Uniformity took that stress away as they were able to manage that entirely for us.” Project Manager.

Why Uniformity

✔️ Able to provide Bespoke Green Jute fabric colour to align with branding 

✔️  Supply other branded & non branded clothing; sourced from other suppliers

✔️  Ability to store uniforms in their warehouse & ship cost effectively, reliably and promptly. Ordering & delivery lead times no longer an issue

✔️ Online Ordering Portal & Ability to forecast future needs by style and sizes

✔️ Uniform Recycling Program 

✔️ Cost Competitive 

✔️ Customer Centric, we have our own account manager for all communications