CANICE NICHOLAS founded the Cara pharmacy chain with his wife Ramona in Donegal 10 years ago when they bought their first store in Bundoran.

“This is still our headquarters,” says Canice. “We bought another pharmacy in Donegal town in 2002, we purchased five more in Cavan and Leitrim in 2003, and another two in Sligo in 2007. That gave us a good geographic spread in the North West region.”

The past three years have brought challenges. “The HSE cutbacks had a huge impact and the new Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland regulations had an impact,” Canice says.

“We invested a lot of time and money in staff training. We also introduced a customer loyalty card and set up an online shop.”

One thing that the business was already prepared for was cross-border competition. “We would like to think we are cheaper for fragrances and toiletries.”

Looking to the future, he says that he would like to continue expanding. “We can’t move until there is a government strategy that we can be certain of. We are a young company that expanded rapidly and we would like to continue expanding.

“Bank of Ireland has always been there whenever we needed them and it is very good to have a strong relationship.”