Mihai Miron, founder of Europharm group of firms that UK's GlaxoSmtihKline giant took over in 2003 for 45m dollars, is now outlining, from an executive position, the development coordinates of a new business, after the already tested model. His new business last year reached unconsolidated turnover worth 90m euros.
"With the experience I have as an entrepreneur and as a manager, everything is déja-vu. The model I applied and that was successful was an integrated one: production, distribution and retail," says Mihai Miron in an interview with ZF.
Miron, one of the most powerful entrepreneurs in the Romanian pharmaceutical industry, set up Europharm in the early nineties, with the firm reaching the top ten. "My ambition in the early '90s was to create a business with a national reach. Many products lacked at that time. We were the first to produce antibiotics in a private system," recounts the businessman.
Will Ropharma, Miron's new business, reach Europharm's size? "Not quite. Maybe something smaller. At Europharm, the idea was for it to be a national leader. For Ropharma, we want 8-10% of what we distribute through our own network to be the group's products," says Miron.
At Europharma, he developed production first, then distribution and only then retail. At Ropharma, drugstores were first, then distribution, and now production consolidation comes next.
Currently, the drugstore network accounts for the largest share of Ropharma's business, around two thirds. " (...) Today, the Romanian market is worth some 2bn euros. I can estimate it will double in the next five years. And it will double again. (...) We would want to be at least 3-5% above the market trend," says Miron.
Ropharma's turnover growth rate has been faster than the market pace in recent years, and in the first quarter Miron says turnover was 20-25% higher compared with the corresponding period of last year. "During these uncertain times, I preferred to basically work with my own funds, and not with loans (...),"Miron says.
In its core business, Ropharma operates a network of 95 drugstores, planning to reach 100 by yearend. The entire network is now undergoing a rebranding campaign.
Among the plans he has he only mentions short-term ones, namely reaching a 5% market share, from 4% now, and the fifth position in the ranking of the main drugstore networks domestically.
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