Anca Vlad: Capitalism gave me freedom

Anca Vlad, owner of drugs distributor Fildas and drugstore chain Catena, set up firm no. 800 in the early days of capitalism on the Romanian market, while this year the group she controls has over 200 million euros in turnover, and over 1,000 employees.

"Capitalism definitely gave me the ability to reach my full potential, it gave me economic freedom and enabled me to create. It would have been very sad for me to remain a head of office and do repetitive work," Anca Vlad says.

She wanted to be a chemist, but got into the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) in Bucharest after a teacher told her she was gifted in economic matters, much to the distress of her parents, who were both engineers.

She started work back in high school, in a chemistry lab, and then, as a seaside travel guide during her university studies.

"My faculty years were an intense time in my life. I was working as a guide, as well as doing translations and interpreting work for the Chamber of Commerce. It all explains the later connections." After being assigned to the current Silvarom producer (then state-held), she kept in touch with the Chamber of Commerce, working as an interpreter at conferences and symposiums. "(...) As a result, in 1987, when one of the companies I had worked with wanted to open an office in Romania, I got the job as a national representative," says Anca Vlad.

This company was Beecham, which has now become GlaxoSmithkline (GSK), one of the leading players on the local pharmaceutical market.

In 1990 she established her own marketing firm, registered at no. 800. She recalls that the first clients were rather difficult to find, after several months of efforts. Then came the grain of "madness": The company acquired films from the BBC, which it offered to the Romanian Television in exchange for a one-minute ad per each episode. "That is how we started to make the first profits," she says. In 1993 Vlad set up Fildas Trading and, "as the number of clients rose, so did the number of suppliers." The first drugstores she worked with were the ones in the Fagarasi, Brasov, and then Tulcea area. "I handled import, paperwork and sales myself until we grew to seven people. Then we got to 30, 50, and later 100 employees," she says.

1999 saw the establishment of the Catena chain, now the second-largest drugstore chain after Sensiblu, a part of the A&D Pharma group.

The owner of Fildas says the difficult situation in 2009 was overcome by suspending investments and by a restructuring conducted last year, when she anticipated what would happen in light of signals from Germany. Fildas will also negotiate extending its financing by around five years.

"We have a five-year plan, and, starting from this, we adjust it on a yearly basis and then on a quarterly basis."