Cycle 13's regional hiring scan flagged Plymouth as the most Boots-concentrated vacancy market in England — a remarkable 65% of local pharmacy vacancies came from a single Boots estate in a 25-mile radius. We left the branch-level context for a follow-up. Cycle 15 is that follow-up.
We audited Plymouth PL1 1RW 3-mile ring on 11 April 2026 and classified every contractor code. The result is a small, concentrated market that materially shapes South West locum careers.
PL1 3-mile branch composition
| Contractor | Branches | Ghost | Operating | Avg operating revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | 24 | 1 | 23 | £109,109 |
| Boots | 10 | 4 | 6 | £150,572 |
| Day Lewis | 2 | 0 | 2 | £117,549 |
| Superdrug | 2 | 1 | 1 | £44,332 |
| Lloyds | 2 | 2 | 0 | — |
| Morrisons | 1 | 0 | 1 | £113,410 |
| Total | 41 | 8 | 33 | — |
- 41 pharmacies on register / 33 operating / 8 ghosts (19.5% ghost rate)
- Independent share all-branch: 58.5%
- Independent share operating-only: 69.7%
- GP practices in ring: 62
- GP-to-pharmacy ratio (operating): 1.88 : 1
That 1.88:1 ratio is significantly higher than Liverpool's 1.42:1 and substantially above the English urban mean. Plymouth is a genuinely pharmacy-short city core — fewer pharmacies per GP practice than any other major South West urban area PharmSee has audited.
Why Boots's 65% vacancy share is so striking
Boots has just 6 operating branches in PL1 3mi. Those 6 branches generate:
- £903,431 in combined dispensing revenue
- £150,572 average per operating site — 46% higher than PharmSee's national Boots operating average of ~£103k
- Approximately 65% of the 25-mile vacancy listings on Plymouth boards
Put differently: a Plymouth Boots site carries roughly 1.6× the per-branch vacancy intensity of a Liverpool Boots site. If you plot local vacancy share against operating branch share:
| City | Operating Boots branches (3mi) | Boots vacancy share (25mi) | Per-branch vacancy multiplier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth | 6 | 65% | 10.8 |
| Newcastle | 8 | 52% | 6.5 |
| Liverpool | 6 | 44% | 7.3 |
| Birmingham | 6 | 13% | 2.2 |
Plymouth's multiplier (10.8) is nearly 5× Birmingham's (2.2). That gap is the operational signature of a chain running hot to staff a small, revenue-dense estate in an under-pharmacy'd city.
What this means for Plymouth-area locums
Three implications, ordered by practical impact:
1. Career planning is Boots-or-independent
The 6 operating Boots branches plus 23 operating independents make up 88% of the PL1 operating market. There are essentially two career pathways in central Plymouth: Boots (high vacancy churn, standardised terms, national hiring pipeline) or independent (relationship-based, low external visibility, often higher take-home for senior roles). The supermarket and small-chain tier is under 5 operating branches combined.
2. Locum day rates should reflect Plymouth's shortage premium
With a 1.88:1 GP-to-pharmacy ratio and a Boots estate running hot, Plymouth is a textbook case where locum rates can legitimately price above the South West regional median. The scarcity isn't simulated — it's a consequence of the operating branch count being 33 across a city serving roughly 260,000 people (a per-capita pharmacy density roughly 15–20% below the English urban mean).
3. Day Lewis is Plymouth's "third option"
The 2 Day Lewis branches in PL1 averaging £117,549 each give locums a smaller but real alternative to the Boots rota. Day Lewis's South West hiring cadence is thin (only 15 live vacancies nationally as of 11 April 2026) so the route in is relationship-based rather than public-board.
Revenue-per-branch: why Boots Plymouth outperforms
Boots's £150,572 per operating Plymouth branch is £47k above its Liverpool average and £95k above its Birmingham average. Two factors explain it:
- Under-pharmacy'd catchment. A 1.88:1 GP ratio means dispensing volume per Boots site is structurally higher than in a chain-dense city.
- Independent thinness. With only 23 operating independents in the core, a Boots branch in Plymouth carries a larger share of the local prescription fulfilment load than its chain-wide average would suggest.
That combination also explains why Boots is simultaneously over-represented in local vacancies and over-performing on per-branch revenue. The chain can't afford the staffing risk of under-recruiting against its Plymouth sites because each branch is punching above its weight.
New-entrant implications
The 1.88:1 ratio suggests Plymouth could plausibly support at least 3–5 additional pharmacy sites before approaching operational balance with GP capacity. That's a genuine white-space number for anyone considering a new-build pharmacy in the South West. The catch is that Plymouth's rental property market and dispensing catchment geometry make out-of-centre siting difficult — which is why the Boots estate has historically hogged the retail-park corridors.
Sources
- NHS Digital Pharmacy register (PharmSee location analyzer PL1 1RW 3mi, 11 April 2026)
- Boots regional hiring concentration (cycle 11)
- South West salary trap (cycle 8)