“The development of Centrofarm will be intensive rather than extensive as it has been the case in the last few years. We are also relocating some pharmacies, two of which in Bucharest and two in other cities from shopping centers that do not perform well,” Catia Radulescu told ZF in an interview.
She took the reins of Centrofarm after her predecessor, Dorin Catana, stepped down. The latter became Centrofarm’s CEO six years ago when he started running a company with 120 employees, 30 retail pharmacies and eight million euros in revenue.
The network grew to 61 pharmacies, more than 400 employees and EUR37 million in revenue during his term and thus became one of the largest on the local market.
Dorin Catana had previously worked as chief executive of Sensiblu and City Pharma drugstore networks and was also area manager of Canadian-owned Pharma Plus.
After his resignation, which he said was because he wanted a change, the shareholders decided for a hands-on involvement in their business. The shareholders directly or indirectly controlling Centrofarm are French businessman Alain Bonte and Catia Radulescu.
Radulescu has been in the board of directors of Centrofarm since privatization. Before that she had worked as a business lawyer, running a seven-lawyer office, which assisted foreign investors in their operations in Romania. She has been working with Alain Bonte since 1997 and is involved in most of his Romanian operations.
“The improvement in financial results is one of the priorities of my term. We budgeted revenue growth of 14% and an EUR3 million EBITDA compared with EUR2 million last year,” Radulescu said.
Centrofarm is the oldest retail pharmacy chain, which has been in business since the communist days. After privatization, the new shareholders started a repositioning process in 2005, which created the company’s current brand image. Most of the repositioning was done during Dorin Catana’s term, when the chain also expanded a great deal, especially inside malls.
“One of the avenues for development is to capitalize on the [competitive] edge we have, that is the presence in the important shopping centers in Bucharest and the rest of the country. (…) Another avenue is to focus on prevention services. We will conduct a program with certain clinics for holders of [loyalty] cards starting June,” Radulescu added.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)