The local independently owned Elite Pharmacy’s expansion continues across Portage County, as it officially acquired the Medical Arts Pharmacy at 6693 North Chestnut Street in Ravenna on Dec. 1.
“We have been having a relationship with the Medical Arts Pharmacy there in Ravenna for many years and first off we want to thank the team there that has been there for 40 years such as Paul Marva and Julie Spaulding,” Co-Owner and Windham Township Zoning Inspector Jake Sweet told The Weekly Villager on Dec. 12. “I always like to try and give them a shoutout because they built up a pharmacy that we thought was worth acquiring. That is something to be spoken well of.”
As The Villager previously reported, Sweet and his partner, Daniel Jones, arrived in Portage County two years ago when they took over the Garrettsville Family Pharmacy, marking their second location since opening Elite Pharmacy. The Garrettsville Family Pharmacy was also owned by Paul Marva, who had owned and operated that Pharmacy and Medical Arts Pharmacy for 30 years.
After selling the Garrettsville Family Pharmacy to Sweet and Jones, he still owned the Medical Arts Pharmacy with his partner Julie Spaulding.
Continuing to build on what Marva built in Garrettsville, Elite Pharmacy will once again carry on what Marva and Spaulding developed 40 years ago in Ravenna, as it now has opened five locations across Northeast Ohio since it opened its first location in Canfield in 2022.
“They have built a wonderful legacy and it is our job, honor and duty,” Sweet noted. “It is up to us to keep it going for another 40 years. Then, hopefully, there is some youngster out there that wants to be an owner. When I am ready to retire, we pass the baton to that person. Every day I go there we have 40 years of history here,”
Since officially taking over on Dec. 1, Medical Arts Pharmacy has continued to operate as Elite Pharmacy but has made some slight but significant renovations to the building. The interior has been painted blue, the Company color and a new computer system has been installed a more direct way of notifying patients that their prescriptions and refills are ready through text messages.
“We try to keep Ravenna’s personality in there with some new fixtures, some new shelving units and some new workspaces for the pharmacy staff,” Sweet said.
Since originally interning at Garrettsville Family Pharmacy, Sweet said that he has maintained a close personal and business relationship with Marva. Even after Elite Pharmacy acquired the Garrettsville Family Pharmacy, he and Jones had a strong interest in doing the same with the Medical Arts Pharmacy when Marva would decide it was time to step down.
“We have talked many times about growing up here and how it would be nice to be able to keep taking care of the community that has taken care of me so much and now it is my turn to give back to them,” Sweet said.
In addition to opening a fifth location, Sweet said that owning a second location in Portage County would go a long way, not just for servicing the community of Northern Portage County but also the proximity to the Garrettsville and Canfield locations so that the three pharmacies can operate in unison.
“If our Ravenna store needs something that they maybe don’t have, Garrettsville is a 17-minute drive away; it is not very far,” Sweet added. “Canfield is not terribly far away; you just hop on I-76. It kind of allows the Ravenna location to have access to our compounding facility. It makes things easier on us and gives us access to more patients.”
For Sweet and Jones, the lost art of operating an independently owned pharmacy has started to become revitalized thanks to the rapid expansion of Elite Pharmacy, which promotes the advantages of being small business owners in small communities such as Garrettsville and Ravenna, something Sweet is well aware of, being a Windham resident.
“Insurance reimbursement right now is a problem that faces every independent pharmacy in America,” Sweet said. “There is not a single one that is thrilled with the insurance payments and the insurance hassles that we have to deal with. That is why we lose almost one pharmacy every day in Ohio. So, we diversify ourselves by doing compounding, medication packaging and vaccinations, to make sure our patients stay healthy and don’t get sick.”
According to Sweet, the Medical Arts Pharmacy will host a grand opening ceremony sometime in January, to celebrate keeping the only independently owned pharmacy in Ravenna in business while also recognizing Elite Pharmacy’s efforts to preserve independently owned pharmacies.
