Expansion plans will not stop here, though, as Anca Vlad told ZF the group would seek new acquisitions on the retail segment.
“The number of pharmacies operating the Catena brand overshot the 550 mark last year. We will continue to be active in terms of new pharmacy acquisitions depending on the trend of the pharmaceutical market and legislative stability,” Anca Vlad said.
If it keeps growing at the same pace as in 2015, Catena might end the year with a record high number of pharmacies, 600.
Anca Vlad established the pharmaceutical wholesaler in 1990, and ten years later added the retail operations, following the acquisition of Argesfarm in a privatization process. The chain had 60 pharmacies at the time. Fildas is now a leading pharmaceutical wholesaler and the largest pharmaceutical retailer.
The officials of the group said they were unable to provide any details about the 2015 revenue of the Catena chain because it was too soon to get such information.
They did not provide any 2014 figures, either, but ZF’s estimates based on a market growth of 7% showed Catena generated 1.6 billion to 1.8 billion sales (EUR356 million to EUR398 million) that year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)