The ailing real estate market affects Centrofarm’s expansion

The company adjusted its 2009 budget downwards, because of the latest evolution of the financial crisis, and will slow the pace of opening new stores this year. Dorin Catana, the firm’s General Manager, is expecting a growth rate of the business above the general growth pace of the pharmaceutical market. Analysts in the field estimate an 8-12 percent market growth rate, twice or three times lower than in previous years.

Centrofarm ended the year 2007 with RON 62 million (€18.7 mln) in net sales, almost double year-on-year, and posted RON 0.9 mln in losses (€0.27 mln). The company registered losses worth RON 5.5 mln (€1.5 mln) at the end of last year’s first three quarters, while its business increased 71 percent, to RON 72.9 mln (€19.8 mln).

The enterprise’s main shareholders are Generalcom, controlled by businessman Bonte Alain Louis, with a 74.06 percent share package, and Fondul Proprietatea, a fund established to compensate persons whose assets were confiscated by the communist regime.

There are more than 5,000 drug stores in Romania at present, most of which are independent, operating on a drug market valuated at €1.8 billion.