Fond farewell as Bramwells retire

Grant Bramwell is the family’s third-generation pharmacist to own Unichem Bramwells Pharmacy on Gladstone Road. Having sold the pharmacy in May this year, Grant is staying on to help the new owners with the transition. He reflects on the history and the changes to a business which dates back to 1927 when his grandfather Ivan Bramwell purchased Lawries Pharmacy from Stark Lawrie.

Grant Bramwell didn’t always want to be a pharmacist but as he completed his high school years and began pondering his future it seemed an obvious career for him to pursue.

So he followed his dad Morris and grandfather Ivan into the family business figuring if they had both had happy and successful careers, then he could too.

“Given that I sort of fell into it, it’s been a really enjoyable career — a great mix of running the business with the customer contact side of things,” Grant says.

“There are now generations of customers we know by name and you develop a special relationship. It’s a good feeling knowing you are making a positive difference in people’s lives.”

Ivan Bramwell was a well-known local businessman and sportsman  — he was selected for the 1929 All Blacks to tour Australia. He worked in the pharmacy until around 1966 and patented a popular cough medicine called Bramwells 101 which was sold around the country and in Bramwell’s Pharmacy into the 1990s when it became too difficult to procure many of the ingredients.

Grant’s dad Morris qualified as a pharmacist in 1959 and joined Ivan in the family pharmacy after working in Auckland briefly. More than 20 years later Grant graduated with a Diploma of Pharmacy in 1981 from Central Institute of Technology in Upper Hutt.

“Fortunately I got on extremely well with my dad. We worked together for about 20 years without a scrap and he was very receptive to all of the changes I made to the business.

“When I started it seemed there was a pharmacy on every corner in Gladstone Road. Manns Pharmacy, Sun City, Walters and Kohn, George Burnett, Raymond Irons, Tyermans, The Urgent Pharmacy and Treble Court were all in the CBD during the early part of my career,” Grant says.

“Most just closed their doors when the owners wanted to retire as consolidation of the community pharmacy industry occurred. There was much rationalisation as small units became unsustainable and community pharmacies grew into larger units —diversifying into other areas and offering a broader range of pharmacy services.

“We can now offer antibiotics for urinary tract infections, nicotine replacement therapy, thrush and other treatments which were previously prescription only. We also now offer vaccinations and INR blood testing for Warfarin patients which were previously the sole domain of GPs and laboratories.

“Because of the pressure on the primary healthcare sector there is a lot more opportunity for pharmacists to work at the top of their scope of practice.”

The Unichem Bramwells Pharmacy building was originally four identical separate shops with Chung Bros Fruit and Vegetables, Les Castles Radio and TV and Evans Delicatessen. It is one of only two Gladstone Road businesses, along with Grant Bros, still operating on the same site since 1950.

Ivan undertook the first major refit in 1950 and in 1976 Morris purchased the vege shop next door and extended the pharmacy to double the floor area.

Grant and his wife Sharon purchased the adjacent two shops in 1993 extending the pharmacy further and renting the final shop to Ted and Colleen Stone who ran Chimes Coffee Shop. They undertook another major renovation in 1999 modernising and adding extra ranges.

The Gisborne earthquake of December 20, 2007 prompted earthquake strengthening of the complete building and extension into the coffee shop giving the pharmacy the footprint it has today. This was another complete refit, modernising the building and adding a bigger dispensary and consulting rooms to accommodate the changing nature of the community pharmacy.

Grant recalls the day of the earthquake well and was working at the time with retail manager Debbie Brown.

“We dived under a doorway as shelves and stands came crashing down around us. Somehow we got the shop shipshape to open the next day,” he says.

Grant is proud of the fact the team managed to keep operating through four fit-outs.

“We just worked around the builders. When I think back it was a tough time managing the pharmacy after the earthquake when the city faced real adversity.”

Unfortunately that wasn’t the last of the hardships Grant would face while at the helm of Bramwell’s Pharmacy.

A plane crash in 2016 cut power to Gisborne city for several days and he remembers labelling scripts by hand and having to record everything in notebooks.

In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic meant working through lockdowns. And in recent months Cyclone Gabrielle meant they experienced days without power, water, communications, computers and eftpos.

“Due to the critical nature of healthcare, we very rarely had any closures, often operating by torchlight, generators and the “can do” attitude of our staff. The resilience of the team was often tested.”

The fact there are several long-term staff members including retail manager Debbie Brown who has been with them 26 years, dispensary manager Foong Ng (16 years) and senior retail assistant Keita Sides  (15 years), is a testament to the positive workplace culture nurtured by Grant and his wife Sharon.

Sharon has been an integral part of the business having done the accounts and payroll for the business for years while also bringing up four children — Kendall, Analisa, Samantha and Max.

From Ivan’s days when all prescriptions were compounded from the raw materials and the records handwritten into massive Hogwarts-style prescription books to the corporate pharmacies of today, much has changed in the community pharmacy industry.

In the 1960s microfilming allowed the more efficient recording of prescriptions until computerisaton in the early 1980s.

The 1980s and early ’90s brought more upheaval as funding arrangements changed. The government agency Pharmac was formed, driving drug prices down and resulting in the proliferation of generic medications.

Lots of pharmacies closed or amalgamated and those who survived sought to diversify and expand the retail offering as well as providing extra pharmaceutical services as they became available.

“It was around this time we began selling broader ranges of cosmetics, fragrances, sunglasses, natural health, many more gift lines and even home brew kits,” Grant says.

New owners Sam, a Gisborne local, and Eliza Hood took over in May this year.

“We are very happy to sell to a family who intend to operate the pharmacy in a fashion consistent with the way we have run it.”

Grant is looking forward to devoting more hours to sport and grandchildren as he winds down into retirement.

He took up kayaking in 1977, paddled at two Olympics and was a central figure in the golden age of the sport in New Zealand. He was part of the K4 1000 combination, known as the Dream Team with Alan Thompson, Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald who won gold at the Olympics in LA in 1984.

“Dad was very supportive of my sport and let me have plenty of time off to train and travel so I was very fortunate.”

These days Grant still loves to surf, mountain bike and enjoys his tennis and golf. He and Sharon are also very proud to call Gisborne home and love the lifestyle here despite the challenging weather of late.

While there might be some overseas travel on the horizon to visit their children in Amsterdam and Australia, they are looking forward to having more time for their leisure pursuits and family.