FAMILY BUSINESS: Two-year-old grandson Veer blows out the candles on the celebratory cake for Jitendra Gathani (centre), with Mr Gathani’s sons Vivek (left) and Raj also in the picture

 

Pharmacist Jitendra Gathani celebrated 30 years of business at his pharmacy, Westbury Chemist, in Streatham High Road, London, with a dinner in Dulwich on August 30.

Guests included professional colleagues and staff from care homes served by the pharmacy. Speaking at the event, Mr Gathani's son Raj said that the business had been established early in the last century by a Mrs Westbury. She had owned the pharmacy for 30 years and begun opening late, seven days a week, “stocking everything”.

The next owners were the Nethercott family. They established a successful perfumery and started to supply care homes. Jitendra Gathani had bought the business in 1985. Then it had comprised two retail units, which he had quickly expanded to four. Working tirelessly, Jitendra had put the business on the map by always being open and stocking the goods that the community required.

Mr Gathani's other son Vivek said that his fondest memory of working at Westbury’s was enjoying a lunch cooked freshly every day in the small kitchen at the back of the shop. The idea of sharing food embodied the sense of community that Jitendra had fostered in the business. “Dad sees his pharmacy as more than a place of work, but rather a community in itself.”

Vivek Gathani paid tribute to the hard work and dedication of the staff of Westbury Chemist. He recalled that, at one time, his father had tried 24-hour opening “taking meals at the dispensary bench and sleeping on the floor.” This turned out to be uneconomic. Mr Gathani senior is a regular reader of ICP and his pharmacy was featured in an article in March, 1991.