The Lismore CBD is set to gain its first large-format discount pharmacy when a new look Brand's Pharmacy opens in late January 2026, following recent approval from the Pharmacy Council of NSW.

The site is in the Quickstop buildings off Ballina Road, at the Dawson Street roundabout. A site that used to be home to Subway, Domino's, Asian Takeaway, and the Grill Shack before the 2022 big flood wiped out all retail, except for Zambrero's, which is not the only shop open.

Brand's was always going to move from its Molesworth Street premises, as the building has been up for sale since February this year.

New owner, Kyle Wood, Managing Partner and Pharmacist at Southside Chempro, told the Lismore App that the new site will be about 700 m2 once the internal walls are knocked out.

'It's a big site. The retail area will be about 500 square metres, so it's by far our biggest pharmacy in the area. I think it'll be one of the biggest pharmacies within the group (Chempro). We've got almost 200 pharmacies in the group, and it will be, by size, one of the biggest pharmacies in the area."

(The entire length of the Quickstop precinct building will be the new Brand's Pharmacy)

The reason for the move from Moelsworth Street and the large style format was to be different from other CBD pharmacies.

"Brand's Pharmacy is well known in the community, but when Greg wanted to sell it, we were obviously very interested in that. But the current site has several limitations, including access for customers, parking, and also just the limitations on stock and the stuff that we can keep on site for the business. So moving it to a new site gives a lot better parking, a lot better access for people, and it allows us to just to expand our range in what we want to do.

"We have a couple of pharmacies in the area, and each pharmacy has its own unique offerings. Places like this are very centred around extra service provision and all those other unique things. But we recognise that there is a lot of competition in that sort of discount pharmacy space. So, what we want to do is still provide the great level of service that place is renowned for, but we would like to provide an offering for people that are very, very price sensitive."

"So we'll be leveraging the purchasing power and the back end of the Chempro operation to help make that possible."

As was mentioned earlier, the retail space is 500 m2 of retail space, which is on the ground floor. That leaves 200 m2 on the top floor for storage and a flood plan.

"Upstairs won't be available to the public, but we'll be using that as a flood protection sort of thing. We'll be using that as storage if we need to put things upstairs, we will have an office up there for bits and pieces, and that is also part of our flood plan. We're also looking at other ways that we can use that space productively.

There is still a lot of work to be done for the new Brand's Pharmacy to open by late January 2026

"There's significant amounts of work to happen there, but I'm hoping to use the tradies that we've got good relationships with. We'll hopefully get our final approval, and we're tentatively locking in an inspection date with the regulators for mid-January. We have to do that before we can load it up with stock and actually move over there.

"Hopefully, it will look like a pharmacy without stock by mid-January, and then as soon as they do that, it'll be a race to get it full and get trading."

The new, large-format Brand's Pharmacy is another example of Lismore entering a period of growth.