“We are thinking of opening one more pharmacy, bigger than this one in future, in one year at most. We have not decided whether it will be in sector one or three (of Bucharest),” Roxana Maftei said.
“Another Bebe Tei (a spin-off of Farmacia Tei selling children’s products but with different shareholders i.e.) store will open by yearend but we have not decided whether it should be in sector one or three.”
Farmacia Tei inaugurated its second pharmacy in the same area as the first one, Lacul Tei Boulevard, but bigger (500 square meter floor space) at the end of 2013, following more than EUR0.3 million investment. The first pharmacy, which has a retail area of 75 square meters continues to operate. This is the first expansion of Farmacia Tei, a business that started sixteen years ago developed by Roxana Maftei.
According to the publicly available information so far, Farmacia Tei is the company with the highest sales from only one pharmacy. The major pharmaceutical retailers usually develop networks of tens or even hundreds of pharmacies that may generate up to hundreds of millions of euros in revenue.
Farmacia Tei is one of the top 25 pharmaceutical retailers in Romania, according to Trade Registry data taking into account a single fiscal entity (and not groups of companies).
Bebe Tei, the first children’s products supermarket opened in western Bucharest is a spin-off of Farmacia Tei and became a separate entity this year. It expects sales of EUR10 million.
“The about eight-month experience with the new pharmacy (the second i.e.) showed us we need display space for new products,” said Roxana Maftei, answering a question about why the decision to invest in a new store, the company’s third.
Farmacia Tei’s management will only expand the chain in Bucharest and has no plans to go to other parts of the country.
Its best-selling products by value are the in-vitro fertilization products, insulin and vaccines for kids.
The company budgeted 70 million lei (almost EUR16 million) revenue this year, an over 16% growth on 2013.
Sales of medical drugs in pharmacies stood at EUR1.16 billion in the first half of 2014, an increase of 0.4% on the same time in 2013. Total sales (via pharmacies and directly to hospitals) amounted to EUR1.34 billion in the first half.
The largest retail pharmacy chains in Romania are Catena, Sensiblu, Dona and Help Net.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)