The producer is present in over 10,000 sales points, one third of which are pharmacies, and the rest are supermarkets, hypermarkets and traditional stores.
“Around 17% of the company’s revenues come from sales in pharmacies. We want the value to rise by 60-70% in the most downbeat scenario and to double at best with the launch of the dermo-cosmetics range,” says Mircea Turdean, the company’s general manager.
Against revenue of EUR31 million last year, sales through pharmacies top EUR5 million at present.
On the dermo-cosmetics market, worth EUR20-30 million, Farmec will compete with Romanian Ivatherm producer and giants such as L’Oreal, which has Vichy brands or LaRoche-Posay.
“With the new range, we want to cover both independent pharmacies, as well as local and international chains”.
Farmec products are sold both in supermarkets, hypermarkets and independent stores, but also in the company’s own units. So far, the company has opened five brand stores in Romania, three in Cluj, and one in Arad and Timisoara each. “We have already signed for a second unit in Timisoara and we’re looking at Bucharest and the country’s other large cities. We haven’t set a total number of openings for the following period, yet”.
The Cluj-based producer has also developed a network of partner stores, where Farmec products have their own space that can fill between 20% and 80% of a store’s area. “At present, we have 460 partner stores and we want to go beyond 1,000 in one year”.
Beside the local market, Farmec products are also present on over 40 foreign markets. Exports account for around 4% of the company’s revenue. “In five years, we want to double sales abroad”.
In Romania, Turdean says he had to fight the crisis each day, but nonetheless the group has budgeted a 10% increase in total revenue for this year. “We haven’t hit the target so far, but we will by yearend”.
Beside cosmetics, Farmec also has cleaning products Nufar and Triumf in its portfolio.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)