RETAIL/WHOLESALE

Berlin  -  Surprising news from the leading pharmaceutical trading groups: Celesio and Phoenix merge their activities in the Netherlands. Celesio will transfer its retail business to Brocacef, the Dutch subsidiary of Phoenix, and in turn receives a 45 per cent stake in the company. The respective pharmacy chains Lloyds and Escura are to be merged; in total, the new company will own 115 pharmacies. In addition, Brocacef has 40 franchise partners with Escura and runs a wholesale division. Given the anti-trust authorities approve the merger, the turnover will total to 1.2 billion euros.

The Netherlands have turned out to be a difficult market during the past years. Due to the preference policy of the insurance companies and price cuts, the wholesalers and retailers barely earn money, according to their own announcements. Celesio runs 62 pharmacies, but no wholesaler, and had a turnover of 170 million euros in 2009. Following governmental interventions the group had to write off around 135 million euros in its Dutch retail business in the past two years.

The more surprising is – beside the merger itself – the balance of power in the new enterprise. For less pharmacies and only a fifth of the turnover of Brocacef, Celesio receives 45 per cent of the shares. Possibly, there will be more news from the partners in the future. Phoenix CEO Reimund Pohl said: „The long-range partnership with Celesio is the right answer to the developments of the national frameworks.“ Celesio CEO Dr. Fritz Oesterle also underlined the long run perspective: „Celesio and Phoenix will significantly improve their service portfolio and performance without additional capital investments.“

DocMorris, Movianto and the Dutch finance affiliates of the groups are not affected by the merger. Brocacef becomes number 2 in the Dutch market, after Mediq/OPG and before Alliance Boots, and has 1600 employees.

Patrick Hollstein, Wed, June 16, 2010 01:05pm CET