PHARMACY CASE STUDY

Diversifying for Success

Hear Their Story

Sweetgrass Pharmacy

Multiply PDS Investment, Making Life Easier, Business More Valuable

Location: South Carolina
Years in business: 5

2

Years with PDS

PDS Strategies Implemented

Smart Dispense

Compounding
Immunizations
Compliance Packaging
Diversification

“Every single call I get on with PDS, I come away with something. I think that the biggest thing that I would have to say is, you make what you want out of this. The more you put in, the more you’re going to get back.”

Cynthia Feldman
Owner

Growth Through Goal Setting (and Diversifying!)
Every year since inception, Cynthia has sat down and written out one or two major goals for the new year. One year the focus was on compounding. Another year they focused on their regular retail section. Cynthia dove in and figured out how to make the most out of the prescriptions they were doing, whether it was with therapeutic optimizations or finding different wholesalers.

This past year Cynthia focused on OTC. It was the one focus she hadn’t done yet, and it made sense that it would be the end of her attention if she’s going to go down the list of things to grow in the business. “OTCs really aren’t super profitable typically; Band-Aids, Advil, some Epsom salts, it’s not how you’re going to pay the bills. So, when I decided to focus on OTCs for 2019, CBD and vitamins were the top of our focus. We’ve really been able to grow that area of our business.”

“Just in 2019, we sold over $215,000 worth of CBD products,” she says with excitement. Cynthia has one employee that is considered their in-house CBD expert. They’ve advertised it more, and she spends a lot of time vetting different companies to make sure she’s putting high-quality products on her shelves. She’s very hands-on and feels it’s a prerequisite for being a successful and honest business owner.
Compounding for Success
Sweetgrass has been compounding from the very beginning. As soon as they first opened, compounding was a moneymaker. “I didn’t know how to make money on regular prescriptions. I focused on compounding and that’s really what drove my success for the first four years of my business.”

Sweetgrass is averaging about 1,200 to 1,300 compounds per month. For a while, compounding equated to 50 to 70 percent of their gross profit margin. It wasn’t until July of 2019 that it balanced out with the prescription side of the business.

They even have their own, full-time veterinary pharmacist, who’s the only board-certified veterinary pharmacist in the state. They do everything from sharks to gorillas to pet monkeys, and then of course, dogs and cats. “That is a large part of our business, which is super fun and always keeps us guessing. You never know what’s going to walk through that door next.”

The other thing that Cynthia enjoys about compounding is working with special needs children. No one else will make the medicine the way these patients need it, and Sweetgrass proudly makes it happen. “Whether they need to be dye-free, sugar-free or made into a suspension so it can go through a G-tube or a J-tube, we do whatever it takes to get done.”

“That’s one of my favorite parts about compounding. We see the change we can make in people’s lives by working with their doctor and adjusting their medications, just a little.”