Team expansion drives Roche Diagnostics to higher-than-budgeted turnover

Roche Diagnostics, the diagnostics unit of Roche Swiss group, hired 28 people last year, getting to a team of 65 people, which enabled it to go beyond the initially set sales target in 2010.

"Starting October 2010, we've been working with a full team. We have 40 people on the sales & service segment, out of a total of 65. We're everywhere now," said Harald Wolf, a country manager with Roche Romania Diagnostics Division.

The company entered Romania in late 2008 by acquiring from Top Diagnostics distributor the part of the business that was related to Roche's business, with the deal, however, being completed in late April 2009. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but ZF put it at "several tens of million euros".

Apart from this unit, Roche has also been present in Romania with the drug unit since 1992, and last year ranked second among the main players, with turnover worth 872m lei (207m euros).