| Title: | A mechanism-based toolkit for branch governance in community pharmacy chains: Profit bridge decomposition and portfolio dependency risk |
| Researcher: | Kridsadadanudej Wongwejwiwat & Jainuch Kanchanapooa |
| Degree: | Doctor of Pharmacy Program in Pharmaceutical Care |
| Major: | Pharm.D. (Pharm.Care) |
| Faculty of study: | Pharmacy |
| Academic year: | 2569 (2026) |
| Published: | International Journal of Healthcare Management 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/20479700.2026.2700353 Click |
Abstract
This study presents a benchmarking approach for managing multi-site community pharmacies, focusing on maintaining profit resilience despite sales declines that may reveal portfolio weaknesses. Analysing VAT-excluded annual summaries from five community pharmacies in Thailand for 2024–2025, we used gross profit as a proxy for operating profit. A two-factor profit bridge helped decompose year-on-year profit changes into sales and margin/mix effects. At the same time, portfolio dependency was assessed through positive-profit SKU rankings and concentration metrics. Network sales declined by 3.9%, but the operating-profit proxy decreased only 1.0%, reflecting a 1.47 percentage-point increase in gross margin. Branch A’s margin/mix effect added +328,968 THB, offsetting its sales drop, while Branch B faced a sales-driven decline of −267,325 THB. Profit coverage curves indicated that 80% of positive-profit SKU profit came from 17.5–23.2% of SKUs. This integrated toolkit supports interventions for margin recovery and profit-pool risk control, with findings limited to this pharmacy chain’s five branches.
Keywords: Community pharmacy, profit bridge decomposition , gross margin , portfolio concentration , Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI)