Helpnet to expand to pharmacies to 85

Helpnet, Romania’s second largest pharmacy chain, is planning to expand its network to 85 by the end of the year, up from the 51 stores it had in its chain at the end of 2004. “We doubled the number of pharmacies in 2004, following over 750,000 euros in investments, which was also the main reason for the growth in our company’s turnover well above that of the overall market,” said the Helpnet general manager, Isabelle Iacob. The turnover of the pharmaceuticals retailer was more than 7.5 million euros in 2003. This rose to around 15 million euros in 2004. “We want to keep the same pace of growth in 2005 as we’ve had until now. To achieve this we will be investing in expanding our chain of pharmacies with a total of over 1.2 million euros,” added Iacob. Currently, there are some 4,500 pharmacies in Romania, though until now only a handful of companies have managed to bring a significant number of them under one brand. ZF