Independent pharmacist opens third location, across from Woodland Mall

G0405 WOODPOINTE Ph.jpgPharmacist Jessica Hillard counts out a prescription at Woodpointe Pharmacy, 2500 E. Beltline Ave. SE. Hillard has been working for Woodpointe since they opened the East Beltline location in January.

GRAND RAPIDS -- Mike Holtz believes in independent pharmacies.

It is a prime reason the veteran pharmacist opened Woodpointe Pharmacy at 2500 East Beltline Ave. SE, across from Woodland Mall.

The 41-year-old Holtz said he saw a need and opportunity in the market, one that is more urban than his two other drugstores -- one near Gun Lake and another in the small Barry County town of Delton.

"We really just wanted to provide another level of service for the Grand Rapids community," he said. "While the other two are in more rural areas, I think that's something that was needed."

Woodpointe opened in January in a 4,000-square-foot space in the Woodpointe Crossing strip mall, taking advantage of having more than twice the space of Holtz's other drugstores.

It offers Michigan-made products by Sand Lake-based Bliss Soybean Candles, Nashville-based Mooville Creamery and Lake Odessa-based Morris Maple Leaf Farms.

The pharmacy is a slight departure for Holtz who previously had taken over already-established drugstores -- Weick's Pharmacy, inside Weick's Food Town at 71 124th Ave. in Martin Township near Gun Lake, and Delton Family Pharmacy, 338 N. Grove St. in Delton.

A graduate of the St. Louis (Mo.) College of Pharmacy, he has used his experience and acumen to get Woodpointe Pharmacy launched, having financed the venture himself with a boost from a $396,700 Small Business Administration loan.

"I'm surprised," he said of his business along the busy East Beltline. "We've had some good foot traffic, but it's more out-of-towners than I might have expected."

Woodpointe is bucking a trend, said Greg Baran, governmental affairs director for the Michigan Pharmacists Association.

Independents have struggled in recent years to stay in business, he said, because of the recession, low operating margins and steep competition from national chains.

Nevertheless, locally owned businesses have remained a solid part of the state's drugstore industry.

The state had 537 independent and 1,423 chain or corporate-owned pharmacies in Michigan last year, according to National Association of Chain Drug Stores figures provided by the state pharmacists association.

"I welcome the opportunity to compete," Holtz said. "I think by being locally-owned we're stable, and I think that's a draw."

Holtz, a St. Louis, Mo., native, has been an independent owner for nearly a decade. He formerly worked for Walgreen's and as a hospital and relief pharmacist.

He and his wife, Leigh, a 40-year-old middle school teacher, operate all three pharmacies. The Yankee Springs Township couple, the parents of three children, also own Great Lakes Rah, a rural Wayland-based pharmacist-relief agency.

The pharmacies employ about a dozen full- and part-time employees, he said.

Great Lakes RPh employs about 20 pharmacists on a contract basis, Leigh Holtz said. It serves hospitals and pharmacies in the Kalamazoo area and as distant as South Haven and Sturgis and is working to expand into the Grand Rapids market, she said.

The couple moved to West Michigan about a decade ago to move closer to the family of Leigh, who is from Gobles, and to take over Weick's from her cousin.

The entrepreneurial drive snagging Holtz's interest in Weick's and Delton Family, for which he built a new building, also got him thinking about Grand Rapids.

"I was actually looking for another pharmacy to purchase," he said.

However, when he saw the space at the new Woodpointe Crossings and realized there were "no other pharmacies within about three miles," he got into gear.

"It's a different market up there," Leigh said. "I think that he wanted the challenge."

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