Help Net drugstores: 2.5% profit margin

The Help Net drugstore network, one of the main players in Romanian pharmaceutical retail, forecasts a 2.5% profit margin next year, while the company’ s turnover could reach almost 71 million euros. If these estimates are met, the company should preserve its EBITDA margin at over 2%, which is around the same level registered in the first half of this year (2.3%). In fact, companies involved in pharmaceutical retail operate with small margins, or make losses. For instance, the leader of the market, Sensiblu, a part of A&D Pharma, intends to step into the black this year, after it registered an operating loss of 1.9 million euros. Help Net representatives estimate that the pharmaceutical market will see a 15-18% increase in 2008, while the company’s business is expected to rise by twice as much. Currently, approximately 20-25% of the player’s business comes from dermatological cosmetics, and the share is rising, with the trend being experienced by other retail networks in the pharmaceutical industry, as well. Help Net, which says it will invest 18 million euros to double the number of drugstores, to 200, also intends to buy a cosmetics producer.