The Ministry centralizes applications for pharmacies in Ilfov in the rural areas category, but the applications were filed in Popesti Leordeni, Bragadiru, Chiajna and Mogosoaia, all small cities and towns near Bucharest, where investors in various industries chose to expand.
“There is growth potential in Ilfov. There are many people in Bucharest who built homes in Ilfov and moved there so there has been quite a rise in population numbers in the past few years, compared with other cities in the rest of the country, where population remained constant or even declined. The demographic criterion is not that important,” Alex Ursuleanu, manager of Tinos Farm, a family business operating in Bucharest and Ilfov, told ZF.
Tinos Farm posted almost 26 million lei (EUR5.6 million) revenue in 2016, up 11% in 2015 and plans to add five more pharmacies in Bucharest and Ilfov to the already existing 15.
Razvan Prisada, the vice-president of the College of Pharmacists of Romania, too, notes the development of the population in Ilfov. Statistics show that the population of the county rose by 13% in 2012-2016, reaching almost 445,000 people. The number of pharmacies in Ilfov went up 75% from 87 in 2012 to 153 in 2016.
“Up until 2009, Ilfov was one of the counties least served because it was not that big in terms of population. After that, a wave of establishing new pharmacies began in the entire country in 2010-2011 and Ilfov is one of the counties with the fastest economic development, of new districts, with people relocating to live there,” Razvan Prisada told ZF. (EUR1=RON4.6571)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)