Chemist Direct
Mitesh Soma
Chemist Direct was launched in December 2007 by entrepreneur Mitesh Soma – by June 2008 it had become the UK’s largest online chemist shop and recorded a first year annual turnover of £5m.
Mitesh Soma, 33, was born in Leicester and graduated from London’s City University with a 1st class degree in business and computing.
He started his career as a financial and management consultant with Siemens Business Services in Bracknell, Berkshire, before providing financial and management consultancy for companies including Siemens Business Services, Citigroup, Deutsche Investment Bank and Deloitte Consulting.
Soma also developed new operating models for a range of leading financial industry clients ranging from the Nationwide Building Society to Lloyds TSB and the Bank of Ireland.
His latest project, www.chemistdirect.co.uk was conceived while assisting his wife, Krishna, with her small independent chemist shop in Westminster. Soma identified the huge mark-ups and realised that by cutting out the middlemen, keeping overheads to a minimum using e-commerce, he could slash costs to the benefit of the consumer.
Krishna, 32, is a qualified pharmacist with 8 years dispensing experience. After graduating from Aston University in Birmingham with a degree in pharmacy, Krishna joined the family chemist and has played a key role in advising and helping Soma establish www.chemistdirect.co.uk.
Chemist Direct’s mission is to supply cheaper chemist products to everyone who has access to a PC and deliver those products to your door within 48 hours.
Chemist Direct offers a variety of key services including pharmacy and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and health supplements, family planning and sexual wellbeing products, perfumes and beauty products, toiletries, baby care and photographic services and electrical goods.
The service is supervised by four fully qualified pharmacists who are available to discuss symptoms and issues about medical problems in a confidential environment through email or telephone and oversee all medicinal purchases.
Since its soft launch at the end of 2007 the website has established a significant repeat customer base due to the dramatic price reductions on offer compared to the high street. Chemist Direct now attracts over 80,000 unique hits a week to the website.
The company offers over 30,000 products, some with up to 90% savings on high street prices. The company now dispatches over 400 orders a day.
In March, 2009, Chemistdirect.co.uk received £3m funding from the Investment House, Atomico, for a minority stake in the company.
Awards:
2009 Growing Business Awards – Young Company of the Year
2009 Retailer of the Year, Startups Awards
2009 BT Essence of the Entrepeneur Awards – Finalist (awaiting results)
Mitesh was a regional winner and a national finalist in the HSBC Start-Up Stars Awards. He was named as a “Young Gun” – one of the UK’s top entrepreneurs under 35 – by Growing Business magazine.
Chemist Direct was recently listed as the most popular online pharmacy in the UK by Hitwise.
