A pharmacist or owner can call Redpark Lenders at (662) 445-7556 or use the request form, and each funding partner that reviews it decides for itself whether to offer.
A Columbus, MS pharmacy can price the purchase of an existing store as a term loan, finance wholesaler stock against the goods, and finance or lease counting machines, refrigerators and fixtures. In the worked example on this page the loan costs less in total and the lease asks for less at the start. The store building and any work on it are not funded here.
At a glance
- Health and personal care stores (NAICS 4461), Lowndes County, MS
35 employer establishments (CBP 2023)
- Stores with fewer than five employees
17, or 48.6% (CBP 2023)
- Annual payroll, all 35 stores together
$9.6 million (CBP 2023)
- Health and personal care retailers with no paid employees
84 (Nonemployer Statistics 2024)
Pharmacy business loans across Lowndes County, MS: stock, equipment and a store purchase
A pharmacy request takes one of three shapes. Wholesaler orders for the shelves can be financed against the goods themselves through inventory financing. Machines and refrigeration are equipment, each with its own vendor quote. And the purchase of a whole store, records and stock included, is priced as a term loan.
A fourth need sits between them: the weeks between paying the wholesaler and receiving payment from a prescription plan. A credit line can carry that gap and be drawn again as it is paid down.
In County Business Patterns, health and personal care stores (NAICS 4461) is the line where an independent pharmacy shows up. For Lowndes County, MS in 2023 that line reads 35 employer establishments, and just under half of them, 17 or 48.6%, ran with fewer than five employees.
How a Lowndes County, MS pharmacy can pay for shelf stock, coolers and a counting machine
- Front-store shelf stock, from over-the-counter remedies to vitamins and health and beauty goods: inventory financing.
- A reach-in drink cooler, or a medication refrigerator for vaccines and insulin: equipment financing.
- An automated counting machine or a blister packaging system: equipment financing.
- Wholesaler invoices due before reimbursements arrive: a credit line or a working capital loan.
- Point-of-sale terminals and pharmacy software: equipment for the terminals, working capital for the subscription.
A drive-up pickup window is building work, and it stays outside this site, as does any change to the layout of the store.
Prescription Files, Stock Counts and Coolers: what a Columbus, MS pharmacy brings to a lender
For a store purchase, the review starts with what is being bought:
- The prescription file count and the refill history the seller can document.
- The stock count taken at closing, valued at cost, with front-store goods and pharmacy shelves listed apart.
- Equipment and fixtures on the bill of sale, from the counting machine to the shelving and coolers.
- Whatever years of tax returns and profit and loss statements the seller hands over.
- The lease, where the store rents its space, and whether the landlord allows a transfer to the new owner.
For a stock order, the wholesaler's invoice and recent bank statements show a partner how the store pays its bills. The document list a partner works from is its own, and it can differ from one partner to the next.
Across Lowndes County, MS, the 35 stores in this code reported $9.6 million in annual payroll for 2023 (CBP). That is the sum for all of them, not the payroll of a typical store.
Funding shelf stock, gondola shelving and front-store fixtures in Columbus, MS
Gondola shelving, endcaps, a checkout counter, anti-theft tags and front-store signage are fixtures and equipment a partner can finance. Changes to the floor plan, the lighting or the electrical service are building work, and none of that is funded here.
Shelf stock bought to fill new gondolas can ride on the same request as inventory financing, so the fixtures and the goods on them are reviewed together.
ZIP Code Business Patterns shows a count of 9 for this code at ZIP 39701 in 2023.
Nonemployer Statistics for 2024 count 84 health and personal care retailers in Lowndes County, MS without paid employees, with $1.8 million in receipts between them (NAICS 4561).
Medication Refrigerators and Counting Machines near Columbus, MS: loan or lease?
Illustration only, invented figures: an automated counting machine and a medication refrigerator cost $28,000 together. In the loan column, $2,800 is paid down and the other $25,200 is financed for 60 months at a 9% annual rate. The lease runs 60 months at $560 a month and ends with a $2,800 purchase option.
| Cost item | Loan | Lease |
|---|---|---|
| Paid at the start | $2,800 | None beyond the first monthly payment |
| Monthly payment | $523.11 | $560 |
| 60 monthly payments | $31,386.60 | $33,600 |
| End of term | Equipment owned | $2,800 to buy it, or return it |
| Total paid, keeping the equipment | $34,186.60 | $36,400 |
Here the loan carries the lower monthly payment and costs $2,213.40 less in total, but it asks for $2,800 at the start. The lease keeps that cash in the store for stock and ends with a choice to buy the equipment or hand it back. The equipment page sets financing and leasing side by side for other purchases, and the industries page and the Columbus, MS page put pharmacies beside the other local trades.
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