Mioara Sipos, one of the two founders of the pharmaceutical company Pharmatech, a business sold to Lek group in late 2000, will start a project linked to the production of dermato-cosmetics together with the French firm Carmain Laboratories.
"We have acquired the licence to sell Ivatherm cosmetics on the Romanian market, with the products being developed and manufactured by the French side. The licence costs amounted to 500,000 euros, and, depending on future sales, we will also start investing in the production facility," Mioara Sipos, herself a pharmacist, told Ziarul Financiar.
The Pharmatech plant in Targu-Mures, a business developed by Sipos together with her associate, Radu Pavel, was purchased by the Slovenian pharmaceutical company Lek for almost 10 million dollars (11 million euros).
"Costs linked to construction works may reach one million euros. We have not yet bought the required land, but the supply is quite rich at this moment in Targu-Mures," Sipos also said. Sales generated by the 10 products in the Ivatherm range have come to stand at almost 150,000 euros since their introduction on the market, six months ago.
With part of the money raised from the sale of stock owned in Pharmatech, Mioara Sipos acquired an old building in the centre of Targu-Mures, in which she invested 4.8 million euros (almost 6 million dollars) to turn it into a four-star hotel, opened last year.
The hotel, called Concordia, has 35 rooms, of which four are apartments and two studios, a subterranean garage, five meeting rooms, a bistro, a bar, a sauna, a Jacuzzi, a cosmetics salon and its own computer network.
Cosmetics consumption on the Romanian market is put at 200-250 million euros per annum, in the context where multinationals operating in this domain have not made significant investments in production in Romania. The market is divided among Beiersdorf, Procter&Gamble, Henkel, Avon, Romsar, L''Oreal, Oriflame and Coty.
The market also includes Cluj-based company Farmec, which posted sales worth more than 8 million euros in the first six months of this year.
The cosmetics and personal care market last year grew by about 15%, with a similar growth rate being projected for 2005, as well.
One of the growth engines behind the cosmetics market is the development of pharmacy networks, which have created departments specialising in these types of products. Pharmacy chain operators are focusing on the sale of cosmetics, since commercial fees for drugs released on the basis of a medical prescription are limited by current regulations. alexandru.cerchez@zf.ro
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