Community comes first for this family-owned pharmacy

Of the many lessons Lenny and Celeste Tran have learned during their twenty years in the pharmacy sector, the most important might be the role that community plays in their lives.

Lenny started his career at Lyell McEwin Hospital and Celeste spent years working in a large pharmacy group, but they both craved a more personal touch.

“Lenny realised that community was what drove him, so he wanted to work in a more customer-based environment where he could deal with people one on one,” says Celeste.

“And I really prefer a community feel to a corporate environment.”

So the couple decided to strike out on their own and bought Terry White Norwood in 2020.

“It was literally the week COVID hit and lockdown started, so it was an interesting time for us,” Celeste recalls.

“We had just had our first child and I couldn't leave the house, so I had to do everything remotely. And he had to be in the business almost 24/7.”

Despite the rocky start, “we've found Norwood such a lovely community to be a part of, and that has really helped us to feel like it wasn't such a hard slog.”

Celeste used her background in analytics to help modernise the business and introduce more lifestyle-driven options.

Changes have included expanding the range of gifts and cosmeceutical options, collaborating more closely with dermatologists and other local specialists and offering a range of travel-related services.

The couple recently installed a new screen in their front window to promote some of their offerings.

“We're really big on supporting South Australian brands,” says Celeste. “So I've been working with a lot of suppliers to get some digital content and promote them.”

But the core of their success lies in the relationships they've built with customers.

“It's important to us that when people are in our store, it's not just a transactional experience,” Celeste says, and that emphasis on connection has seen them nominated for the Guild Pharmacy Of The Year and the Local Business Awards.

In addition to being a compound pharmacy that offers medication packing services, Terry White Norwood also provides a range of vaccination services.

“And we try to work with people where we can, so Lenny will actually go out to some businesses and offer vaccines to their employees rather than them all having to come to us.”

“We also vaccinate children now, which has been an interesting change,” says Celeste.

“We've had a few parents bring in children who are quite upset and don't want to have their vaccinations.

But we've got two kids who scream whenever they have to do something they don't want to, so we understand – if it doesn't happen on the first try, we'll do it another day.”

“When we took over the store, our customer base was mostly retirees and we didn't have a lot of families,” says Celeste.

“But we've worked really, really hard to get that community feel back and we have so many families coming in now, which makes us feel great.”

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116 The Parade, Norwood
T: 8431 1262
I: @terrywhitechemmartnorwood