Molecule Group plc, until this month Vulcan Two Group, is a UK online pharmacy business built in 2026 by buying three companies with £40m of new money. It was a cash shell until 19 March 2026; by June it had £10.0m of revenue in under four months, a small adjusted EBITDA loss, and a year of integration costs still ahead.
Online pharmacy for patients, prescribers and vets
Molecule Group is a regulated UK ePharmacy group. It sells through three routes: CloudRx, a business-to-business service that fulfils prescriptions for prescribers; Webmed, a consumer digital pharmacy; and Hyperdrug, a veterinary pharmacy.
On a pro-forma basis, as if the group had owned them all year, the first half split into general healthcare at 44% of revenue, weight loss at 33% and veterinary at 23%. Demand in general healthcare was strong in women's health and ADHD medicines. About 85% of revenue comes from customers who pay at the point of order, so the group has little bad-debt exposure. 29 Sep 2026
A cash shell with £12m
Vulcan Two was incorporated on 6 August 2025 and raised £12.0m in September 2025. It then held cash and no operations until March 2026. The shares sat at 245p from September 2025 to January 2026, then eased to 215p in February and about 200p in March. 29 Sep 2026
Three pharmacies bought in one day
On 19 March 2026 the company raised a further £40.0m from UK institutional investors. It used £36.4m in cash to complete the acquisitions of CloudRx, Webmed and Hyperdrug, for a maximum consideration of £41.7m. Acquisition costs of about £5.0m came on top, including £2.8m of one-off legal, accounting, advisory and stamp duty charges.
The shares rose from about 200p in March to 276p in June, then slipped to 204p by September. 29 Sep 2026
Integration: one site, one brand
The company moved Webmed's fulfilment into CloudRx to rationalise purchasing, stock and despatch. It also dropped a small number of lower-margin, higher credit-risk clinics, mainly in weight loss. Management says this cut near-term revenue but left a higher-quality base. Weight loss fell from 33% of pro-forma revenue to 29% of reported revenue.
It hired Keith Butcher as CFO and Declan Lismore as Chief Pharmacy Officer, and set up a dedicated B2B sales team. On 29 September 2026 it launched the Molecule brand and the molecule.co.uk consumer site, and it changed its name and ticker to Molecule Group (MOL), effective 5 October. 29 Sep 2026 5 Oct 2026
“The actions we took, included transferring Webmed's fulfilment to CloudRx and stepping away from lower-margin, higher credit-risk customers.” 29 Sep 2026
What the first half shows
The group is thin on margin: gross margin was 22% reported and 21% pro-forma. Pro-forma adjusted EBITDA was only £0.5m on £19.9m of revenue. The company has not said how much of the revenue dip from dropped clinics it expects to recover.
Management chose lower revenue in return for customers who pay upfront. The fixed costs of integration, including systems running in parallel, fall in 2026, and management expects them to fall away in 2027. That claim is untested until the systems go live. 29 Sep 2026
Founders' businesses, a new executive layer
Michael Kraftman is CEO. He describes the deal as bringing together three founder-led businesses on one platform. Keith Butcher joined as CFO at the start of 2026 and Declan Lismore joined as Chief Pharmacy Officer.
So far the record is one of delivering the deal and early integration steps on the stated timetable. Operational promises have not yet been tested, as the main milestones fall in December. 29 Sep 2026
A year of investment, £5.7m in the bank
At 30 June the group held about £5.7m of cash. It carried £44.2m of intangible assets from the deals, including £27.2m of goodwill. Reported loss before tax for the half was £4.1m, driven by pre-acquisition and one-off deal costs. The pro-forma loss was £1.9m.
Dowgate Group Limited holds 15.95% of the shares, up from 15.11% in August. Killik & Co LLP crossed 3% in September. The shares closed September at 204p and October at 215p. 29 Sep 2026 13 Aug 2026 7 Sep 2026 7 Sep 2026
December go-live, then more deals
Management says 2026 remains a year of investment. It targets the new 22,000 sq ft Leeds distribution centre and the ERP system (stock and order software) for early December 2026, aiming for same-day or next-day delivery. All staff move to Leeds in Q4. The rest of Webmed's treatment range joins molecule.co.uk by the end of 2026, and a B2B veterinary offering is planned for early 2027.
The company intends to grow organically and integrate further acquisitions in 2027 and beyond. It says it sees a healthy pipeline of acquisitions and will review them with discipline. It has set no numerical targets. 29 Sep 2026
“With our Leeds distribution centre and ERP system expected to go live in early December, we are building a group with one brand, one website, one distribution centre and one ERP: a strong platform from which to accelerate organic growth and integrate further acquisitions in 2027 and beyond.” 29 Sep 2026
Written by AI from Vulcan Two Group PLC's own announcements since Oct 2023 · every paragraph links to its sources