Times of challenge – opportunity for the best
Given that the pharmaceutical industry is hardly affected by economic downturns or upturns, in the years ahead sales of medicines are expected to grow at a stable pace, which
will help drive continued growth of the PGF Group.
”Last year, we made a number of critical decisions connected with the reorganization of our
Group, including the most important of all – the decision to separate the wholesale business from the retail business,” said Jacek Szwajcowski, President of the Management Board of Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna.
”In addition, a comparison with the corporate universe shows that PGF is positioned at an advantage, owing to its management strategy focused on the creation of long-term company value while minimizing the risks, which has allowed us to escape problems stemming from the turmoil which has recently hit the financial markets,” said PGF’s President. ”Our sources of funding are well diversified, we have no currency-option or CIRS positions, we finance our operations predominantly with the złoty and our foreign exchange risk from imports of goods is limited – all this goes to show that we have made the right decisions,”.
”Now that the financial crisis is escalating, maintenance of sufficient liquidity is becoming an issue of key importance. Therefore, one of the PGF Group’s top priorities is to maintain sufficient liquidity reserves, while keeping its portfolio of accounts receivable under close control. To date, we have managed to pursue these priorities with remarkable success,” added Jacek Szwajcowki.
The year 2008 was a crucial one for Polska Grupa Farmeceutyczna, as it witnessed a number of decisions of great business importance. The main ones included the separation of the wholesale and retail businesses, and the preparation of the wholesale business to launch new services targeted at manufacturers.
The main rationale behind the separation of the wholesale and retail businesses was to streamline the management process, while creating an opportunity to procure new sources of funding for the retail business and build better working relations with drug manufacturers. In 2008, PGF also made substantial capital expenditure in upgrading its logistics and enhancing the provision of services to pharmacies.
In response to market feedback, the Group is undertaking a number of new initiatives aimed at improving the quality of service. In 2008, it pioneered the direct distribution business model, having signed - as the first company on the Polish market - an agreement with Astra Zeneca.
In 2008, the www.doz.pl site, launched in November 2007, began to bring rewards. It soon became the market leader in terms of user numbers. In addition to its function as an e-pharmacy where patients can buy affordably priced medicines, the site is also a store of reliable knowledge on medicines, featuring a health encyclopaedia and a catalogue of doctors. Each patient has a chance to ask on-line questions to any of the pharmacists or medical doctors who are currently on duty.
The doz.pl e-pharmacy site is a unique market phenomenon in that it operates based on Poland’s largest chain of I Care for My Health pharmacies. Cheaper medicines can be ordered on-line and collected at one of the outlets covered by the I Care for My Health programme. Such a solution gives patients a certainty that affordable medicines will be available at their pharmacy.
