Every year gets more challenging for an independent pharmacy to continue operating at a high level.
At least that’s what Kyle Nettleingham, Cornwell Pharmacy’s owner, said when talking about his decision to assume Mark’s Drug’s clients as the Mark’s Drug owner decided to retire.
To Nettleingham, those challenges are magnified when third party insurance companies called pharmacy benefit managers (PBM’s) steer customers away to mail order pharmacies that they own, effectively raising the bar for independent pharmacies to survive.
As the Mark’s Drug’s owner contemplated stopping, he approached Nettleingham with the continued care of his customers taking priority.
“We’ve had a good relationship with him for quite a while,” Nettleingham said. “We’re both just focused on talking care of folks the best way. So, when there’s some common ground on that, you kind of share a mutual respect for each other on that regard.”
The transition happened quickly, taking most people by surprise. Nettleingham said that once they were approached with the possibility, discussions and arrangements moved quickly.
After the purchase of the company, Cornwell couldn’t take the employees from Mark’s Drug, but did bring Jamie Gatson onboard, which will be a familiar face for most of their customers. Nettleingham already had a solid staff, but said he would have added more if it was feasible.
When asked to expand more on the details of acquisition, Nettleingham said, “the best way I can describe it is they were looking to hand the torch off to somebody else to continue to care for their customer base. Our entire staff is extremely proud and honored to have been considered for the opportunity in the first place. Once it became a reality, we were even more so.”
Nettleingham, an OU graduate in 2012, had experience interning at big pharmacy chains, but didn’t like it, even going as far as considering his future as a pharmacist. He tried an independent company instead of a chain and had an extremely different reaction.
“It’s a totally different atmosphere than it is working in a chain store,” Nettleingham said. “You know your folks a little bit more. Folks tend to be happier coming in here than they are at big stores.”
After graduating, Nettleingham had options to move toward owning a store. His family lives around the Oklahoma City metro, and Nettleingham said that factored into the decision of where his family settled.
“That small town feel, Guthrie fits that to a tee,” Nettleingham said. “It’s very close back to the metro, so you can see all your friends and family easily.”
The other part of the consideration was location. With Guthrie’s Cornwell Pharmacy location comes historical context other places couldn’t provide.
“Location was one of the big parts about it, but also just the fact of the store itself that would have been involved, like this store’s got some historic value to it,” Nettleingham said. “It seemed very neat. The staff here was already great. So, everything just seemed to line up.”