Peak Pharmacy is the 31-store Derbyshire regional chain PharmSee profiled in cycle 5 (peak-pharmacy-derbyshire-chain-profile-2026). It was one of the clearest cases in the atlas of a mid-size indie-chain defending a single-county footprint. The cycle 21 Nottingham NG1 5DT audit asks the obvious follow-up: does Peak Pharmacy extend across the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire county border?
The answer is: barely, and weakly. Peak Pharmacy has only 3 contractor codes in the Nottingham NG1 3-mile ring. Only one is operating. The other two are zero-revenue ghost codes. That is a 67% chain-specific ghost rate, well above Nottingham's city-wide 31% ghost rate — Peak Pharmacy's Nottinghamshire footprint is in worse register-health than the city average.
The three NG1 Peak contractor codes
| Contractor | Postcode | Distance from NG1 5DT | Revenue | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FM052 | NG2 2JD | 1.04 mi | £114,240 | Operating |
| FAD07 | NG2 6EN | 2.33 mi | £0 | Ghost |
| FVR38 | NG2 7JR | 2.46 mi | £0 | Ghost |
All three branches sit in NG2 postcodes — the West Bridgford / Meadows / Sneinton corridor, just south of Nottingham city centre across the Trent. None of them are in NG1 proper. This is Peak Pharmacy's extension pattern: the chain pushes across the Derbyshire border into the closest Nottinghamshire postcode district (NG2), but not past it into the city core or the eastern and northern Nottingham districts.
The single operating branch: FM052 NG2 2JD at £114,240
£114,240 is a middling operating figure for the chain — well below the Peak Pharmacy top-end revenue in its Derbyshire home estate and below the Nottingham NG1 independent average of £90,099 after removing outliers. It is not a flagship extension; it is a break-even hold-the-line branch.
Nottingham NG1 independent average: £90,099. Nottingham Boots operating average: £109,595. Peak's single operating Nottinghamshire branch sits between the two — essentially on the chain median for independent city-edge branches, nothing special about the cross-border footprint.
Why the two ghosts matter more than the one operator
Peak Pharmacy's Nottinghamshire thin-outpost problem isn't a story about one operating branch. It's a story about three contractor codes representing commercial commitments that didn't survive 2023. Ghost branches in the PharmSee dataset are almost always post-closure register entries — NHS Digital has not yet pruned them, but they are commercially closed. Peak paid for three Nottinghamshire contractor codes and is operating one.
That 2-out-of-3 close rate is worse than Boots's 2023 rationalisation wave in every city PharmSee has audited. It is comparable only to Lloyds's 96% English city-core exit (cycle 19). When a regional chain closes at the Lloyds-pattern rate in a border county, the business decision was "retreat to the home market," not "consolidate to the survivors."
Compare to Peak's Derbyshire home economics
Cycle 5's Peak Pharmacy profile characterised the chain as a 31-store Derbyshire operator with a clean register and stable single-county operation. The Nottingham follow-up shows the limits of that strategy: Peak Pharmacy cannot commercially extend east of the Derbyshire border. Boots, Cohens and Well all have multi-county reach. Peak doesn't.
The structural reason is probably supply-chain geography. A 31-branch independent chain can run a single central wholesale hub; that hub sits inside Derbyshire. Every Nottinghamshire branch adds delivery miles without adding wholesale-purchasing leverage. At £114k annual revenue, the marginal economics don't work.
What this says about post-2023 regional chain geography
| Chain | Home county | Extension reach |
|---|---|---|
| Cohens Chemist | Manchester/Bolton | 4+ counties (Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside via Warrington extension) |
| Peak Pharmacy | Derbyshire | Barely 1 county — NG2 corridor only |
| Weldricks Pharmacy | South Yorkshire | 1 county (Doncaster core) |
| Day Lewis | London multi-region | National (historically) |
Peak is the least extended regional chain in PharmSee's atlas. Cohens is the counter-example: Warrington FQV12 is a successful WA-postcode extension, Rochdale OL16 is a stable four-branch cluster, and Stockport SK1 runs 10 branches all operating. The difference is probably management bandwidth, not commercial opportunity — the Nottinghamshire independent pharmacy acquisition market is healthy, but Peak has pulled back from it.
The strategic takeaway
If you're a pharmacy technician or a locum pharmacist looking at regional chain career paths, Peak Pharmacy is a Derbyshire-only employer in practice. The NG2 operating branch (FM052) is the single Nottinghamshire toehold, and it is a thin one. Check live pharmacy jobs in Nottingham for current Peak postings, but don't expect significant cross-border progression.
If you're a commercial real-estate investor looking at regional chain acquisition targets, the Nottingham ghosts are not idle — they are closed commitments, and the contractor codes have zero commercial value. Only FM052 has an operational asset attached to it.
If you're an NHS Lincolnshire or Nottinghamshire ICB pharmaceutical needs assessor, the NG2 Peak ghosts are the shape of the last decade's rationalisation in the county. The two zero-revenue codes are essentially invisible until you check the NHS Digital register against PharmSee's dispensing data.
Related PharmSee
- Peak Pharmacy Derbyshire chain profile (cycle 5)
- Nottingham NG1 branch audit (cycle 19)
- Stockport Cohens Chemist profile
- Browse Nottinghamshire pharmacies
Sources
- PharmSee location analyzer, NG1 5DT, 3-mile ring, 2026-04-11
- NHS Digital pharmacy contractor register (NHSBSA open data)