Almost 10 months since officially acquiring Ravenna’s Medical Arts Pharmacy, Elite Pharmacy has been officially welcomed to the City of Ravenna. The Ravenna Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the grand reopening on Monday afternoon at 6693 North Chestnut Street.
“It is always great to reinforce our commitment to the community, especially with the Chamber being here supporting us and supporting other small businesses in the town and in the county. It is great, it is a nice day to celebrate,” Elite Pharmacy Co-Owner/Windham Township Zoning Inspector Jake Sweet told The Weekly Villager.
As The Villager previously reported, Sweet and his partner, Daniel Jones, acquired the Medical Arts Pharmacy from Julie Spaulding and Paul Marva last December, marking the fifth location of the independently owned local pharmacy chain.
Elite Pharmacy has locations in Garrettsville, Canfield, New Philadelphia and East Palestine.
Since taking over, Sweet said Elite Pharmacy has retained almost all of the Medical Arts Pharmacy’s usual customers.
“I think it speaks volumes,” he added. “Here in Ravenn there are plenty of choices for people to pick out their pharmacy, we encourage everyone to pick Elite Pharmacy out here in Ravenna and the fact that people stayed with us has tremendous value.”
Although the pharmacy is under new management, Marva and Spaulding still maintain significant roles in the business, as they are currently overseeing the daily operations as Sweet and Johnson are working to solidify the operations of all five locations.
According to Spaulding, Sweet and Johnson were the perfect people to sell to given their ties to Portage County community and their shared vision.
“Walmart and Walgreens, those are big guys and they don’t understand helping the little people of the community,” she added. “They talked with Paul a long time ago when they were done with pharmacy school, so they have had this vision for a long time and there are a lot of pharmacies that don’t have that understanding. It takes a special person, and I feel like that they are those people.”
As Elite Pharmacy has settled into Ravenna, Sweet said that there have been some subtle changes made from the back line of production to improve customer efficiency.
He said that Elite Pharmacy offers texting service, contacting customers via text when their prescription is ready and offer automatic refills. He added that Elite Pharmacy has engineered a medication synchronization program so all medication will be available to customers on one day of the month, which will cut down their trips to the pharmacy significantly.
“Most of the changes that have been made are inside with renovations, we brought in new products, and new fixtures,” he noted. “We have a new computer system that we use. Some of the changes are things patients may not see because it is on the back end increasing efficiencies like computer operations.”
RACC Executive Director Ryann Cline praised the new ownership of Ravenna’s local pharmacy, as Sweet and Johnson’s upbringing in Portage County makes them familiar faces in the community.
“They have been wonderful with just making that personalized experience for our community and their customers,” she said. “They are a full-service pharmacy, and they have done a wonderful job. Some of the things that they have discussed that they are able to do specifically for their customers is profound.”
Sweet added that what has helped Elite Pharmacy thrive in an age where big-chain pharmacies are dominating the market is its devotion to personalized customer experience.
He said Elite Pharmacy has succeeded in all of its five current locations because they can address the needs of small-town communities, something Sweet himself is accustomed to having been a graduate of Windham High School.
“We are rustbelt, hard-working, blue-collar Americans and that is how I was raised and those are the people that fit our mission in life,” he said. “Ravenna knows that well with the Ravenna Arsenal and the factories that we have had here and being so close to the hospital. This is the county hub, where mostly everything happens, mostly everybody was born within almost eyesight of here and those are the people that we get along with.”
Sweet said that there are currently no plans for Elite Pharmacy to open another location this year but did not rule out the possibility of Elite Pharmacy expanding its reach in 2027.
