Prominent Dubbo pharmacist Mark Rugendyke will mark the end of an era on Thursday as he sells his share of Priceline Pharmacy.
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Mr Rugendyke will be stepping back from full-time employment but after he takes his first month-long holiday in more than 30 years, he will be back behind the counter.
After 36 years, Mr Rugendyke said he needed more time to spend with his family and couldn’t do that while giving 100 per cent to running the business.
He came to the realisation last year, after his wife had a health scare and since then has been working to hand full control to business partner Greg Shearing.
“Last year, about 12 months ago my wife had a bit of a health scare and that makes you reconsider what you’re doing. I think that’s a fairly common scenario.
“I thought I need to be able to have more time available.”
Mr Rugendyke spent his formative years in Gilgandra and Wellington, before moving to Cooma and finishing his schooling there.
He went to university in Sydney before starting his pharmaceutical career in Campbelltown. It was during that time he met and got married to his wife Ann.
He said he didn’t want to raise his children in Sydney, which prompted them to move. The young family chose Dubbo because they wanted to find somewhere that was no more than five hours from Ann’s family in Campbelltown.
They arrived on January 1, 1986 and fell in love with the city.
“A guy I worked with called Kevin Boonan said ‘I’ll buy a pharmacy and you can run it’. We bought out Peter Lawler Pharmacy at 78 Macquarie Street,” Mr Rugendyke said.
“Eventually I bought Kevin out.
“The kids grew up here. Dubbo is a great town for kids to grow up, there’s good schools and great sporting facilities.”
Later Mr Rugendyke would partner with fellow pharmacist Mr Shearing to buy Priceline, a store that was under-performing and turn it into one of the city’s leading pharmacies.
He said it was a risk, but one that paid off in the long term.
Mr Rugendyke said he was proud of the business and had always tried to ensure all the focus was on the customer, even when changes to prescription payments forced a rethink of how pharmacies operated.
With so much work to be done at the business, Mr Rugendyke said he would be back at work in August, lending a hand.
But first he intends to spend some quality time with his family.
“Greg has me booked in a fair bit. In fact he said what are your plans come June 30 but I told him I’m having July off,” he said.
“I’ll be back in August.”
