United Drug chairman Mr Martin Rafferty has warned independent pharmacists that its two competitors, Uniphar and Cahill May Roberts, were also their competitors and could threaten their future.

Addressing shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday, Mr Rafferty said that its main competitors now owned a significant number of shops throughout Ireland that were competing with their independent pharmacy customers.

"Unless you are a customer of United Drug, your wholesaler is now your competitor as well and is in danger of undermining you in the future," he said.

United Drug, which is a wholesaler in the Republic, claims that many independent pharmacies have switched to do business with the company in the past three years and expects more will follow.

He told shareholders that the company was continuing to deliver strong growth in profits, with the first quarter of 2004 likely to be ahead of the same period last year. "Even at this early stage, I am confident we will have another record year."

Just one shareholder questioned the board during the meeting. Mr Jeremy Craig explained that while the company usually got few questions from its shareholders who had reaped healthy dividends in recent years, he believed that wasn't reason enough for the board to go unquestioned.

He remarked on the photograph of a "pretty woman" on the inside page of its annual report which was followed by photos of the 10 male directors. "Even the secretary is a man," he declared, while suggesting the company should think about addressing the lack of women on its board.

Mr Rafferty said it was a fair question. "We did have a lady director in the past. The make-up of a plc board is not a question of religion or gender but is a question of finding people with the right mix of skills and ability."

He said this may lead to the company appointing a woman to the board in the future and suggested it should have brought some of its "good-looking secretaries" to yesterday's meeting.