Drug distributor Montero intends to attain 10% market share next year, with sales of over 85 million euros, 30% above this year's estimates.
Montero logged approximately 47 million euro sales for this year, and should see turnover in excess of 63 million euros by yearend, the company officials estimate. Its market share stood of about 8% this year, according to its own calculations.
"The investment plan for 2005 largely focuses on the development of infrastructure, logistics, as well as on human resources," stated Dragos Chiorsac, Montero's marketing and development manager. Early next year, the company will enlarge its vehicle stock by 10 new commercial utility vehicles to be used for distribution purposes, Chiorsac says. Montero opened its tenth branch in Romania in Sibiu this year, following an about 100,000 euro investment in order to meet the demand from clients in the area. It has warehouses in Bucharest, Brasov, Braila, Cluj, Constanta, Craiova, Iasi, Oradea, Timisoara and Sibiu.
"The investments that will be made will be directed to the development of the brand, of the client approach, to broadening the product ranges and the service range especially, which will result in turning the traditional drugstores into health complexes," the Montero official feels.
The bulk of the total sales of the company was due to the psychotropic drugs (those used in treatment of such diseases as cancer, rheumatism or AIDS), followed by antibiotics, Chiorsac specified. Approximately 30% of the total sales are OTCs (non-prescription drugs), sold by the group's specialised division Varium.
The share of the drugs in the company's sales is dwindling, making room for such product categories as cosmetics or nutritional supplements. "The products for children account for an increasingly higher share of our sales," Chiorsac said.
The sales of the drug distributor are directed to hospitals (10%) and to drugstores (90%). "The overall problem of the pharmaceutical market is the too long time it takes drugstores to collect on the prescriptions (either compensated or free) filled and implicitly to pay their bills to distributors," the Montero official added.
Montero was established in 1993, and its shareholders are a Slovenian investment group, which owns 50% in it, and the Tudorache family, which owns the remaining 50%. Montero posted sales of more than 47 million euros in 2003, up 10% from 2002.
The company is currently distributing products for over 100 international companies and for the main Romanian drug makers.
alexandru.cerchez@zf.ro
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