Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2007/January 2008 | Page 111

LOCAL BUSINESS
Whilst Anne adores the
historical ambience of the
pharmacy, she has a clear idea
of how she wants to bring
the business into the 21st
century. ‘It’s all about using
technology without letting it
rule you’ she says confidently.
She offers her customers a
superior prescription service,
telephoning them when their
repeat medication is due and
will collect the prescription
on their behalf, having it
ready for collection or, if
they prefer, delivery to their
home or place of work.
The joy of using technology,
says Anne, is that it frees her
up to spend valuable time
talking to her customers.
Nothing, she emphasises,
is a substitute for excellent
customer service. Her ethos is
simple – nothing is too much
trouble and she is always ready
to go the extra mile. Today
a gentleman asked her for
saltpetre (for curing meat) –
he’d come especially, having
tried both the butcher and a
number of other pharmacies.
Sadly, many of these old
fashioned things are no longer
available but Anne was able
to find him an alternative
recipe and some telephone
numbers for butcher suppliers
in London. ‘From a business
point of view’, she says, ‘I
hope he might come back to
the pharmacy in the future,

but more importantly, I hope
I have brightened someone’s
day’; it is this genuine desire
to help people which comes
across when you meet her.
The joy of being a pharmacist
these days, says Anne, is
that you can be so much
more involved in the health
and wellbeing of your local
community. She offers a whole
variety of free services at the
pharmacy from blood pressure
testing, diabetes screening and
nutritional advice to support
with smoking cessation and
home visits to the elderly
and housebound. Annual
medication reviews are
another service which she
provides to all her customers
as well as general advice and
information on a day to day
basis. Anne is also the island’s
only agent for the Lipotrim
weight loss programme.
With her nutritional training
and experience with this
diet, she is well placed to
help anyone wanting to lose
weight and keep it off.
Whether you go for health
advice, Christmas shopping
or simply to marvel at the
preservation of our island
culture and history, Gibbs
& Gurnell is certainly worth
a visit the next time you
find yourself in Ryde.
Union Street, Ryde
Tel: [phone]

Island Life - www.isleofwight.net

life

Getting the message
across this winter
For many Island businesses
December and the build-up
to Christmas will be one of
the busiest times of the year.
Others will see it as a chance
to catch their breath after
the hustle and hassles of the
summer months. Either way,
say Paul Rainford and Peta
Hodge of copywriting and
design service Off Wight,
the coming of the new year
presents business owners with
an ideal opportunity to take
stock and think about some
spring cleaning – not just for
their business premises but for
their marketing literature too!
"Businesses develop
organically – often in ways that
surprise their owners – and it's
easy for brochures, websites
and even a business's corporate
identity to get out of step
with what it actually offers its
customers," says Paul. "It's not
laziness or lack of interest, it's
just that when you run a small
business you get so bogged
down in getting through
the working day, things like
marketing literature tend to
get pushed to one side."
The couple should know
what they are talking about:

before moving back to the
Island in December 2006, they
spent seven years running
a successful small hotel on
Exmoor. "We were lucky in
that we had many years of
writing and design experience
to fall back on, but even we
found it difficul