Pharmaceutical wholesaler Cahill May Roberts (CMR) continued to lose market share in the first half, figures released by its parent company showed yesterday.
Stuttgart-based Celesio, which was known as Gehe when it acquired CMR two years ago, said that although turnover in its Irish wholesale operation rose by nearly 19 per cent to €208 million, it lagged behind "comparable market growth".
However, it said CMR's pre-tax profit in the first-half was in line with expectations although it gave no further detail on profitability.
But it noted that the Irish market was characterised by intense discount competition while market consolidation continued. It pointed to the recent takeover of the 14-store Walsh Pharmacy Group by one of CMR's main competitors, UniPhar.
In recent years, CMR has been losing market share to its two main rivals, the publicly-quoted United Drug and UniPhar, as it has suffered from the growing presence of Celesio in the retail pharmacy market in Ireland.
Analysts believe many independent pharmacies are reluctant to source supplies from a company with whom they are also competing on the high street.
Celesio has established a substantial retail presence in Ireland in the past two years following the acquisition of the Unicare pharmacy chain and Limerick's Ryan pharmacy chain. It owns 55 pharmacies in the Republic.
Yesterday, it said turnover at these outlets rose by 8.4 per cent to €54.5 million. Profit before tax rose more strongly than turnover and fulfilled expectations, Celesio said.
However, it noted that the retail market was marked by the opening of a large number of new pharmacies.
Celesio, which is Europe's top drugs distributor, posted stronger than expected first half profits thanks to earnings from its chemist chains, and said it expected retail sales to continue to grow smartly.
Pre-tax profit at the company, which has operations in Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Norway and Portugal, as well as Ireland, rose by 24 per cent €207.5 million.
Sales rose to €9.4 billion from €9.1 billion a year earlier.
Celesio said it expected full-year pre-tax profit to rise by at least 15 per cent in local currencies, more specific than earlier guidance of a double-digit percentage increase.
