26 June 2020 - Deborah Wilkes
Switzerland’s Zur Rose Group – the e-commerce pharmacy that owns DocMorris – is strengthening its position in Germany by acquiring Apotal Group.
Walter Oberhänsli, Zur Rose’s chief executive officer, said Apotal had “built a strongly-performing OTC online business which we will develop further”.
Zur Rose pointed out that Apotal was “among the best-known and leading pharmacy brands in Germany”. Apotal offers OTC medicines, beauty lines, health products and prescription drugs, as well as a a broad range of products and services for diabetes.
Apotal generated e-commerce pharmacy revenues of EUR157 million (USD176 million) in 2019, said Zur Rose, representing a rise of 8.3% compared to 2018.
Zur Rose said 1.1 million active customers would be transferred to its business, taking the total to more than eight million.
Apotal was founded in 1980 by Heinz-Peter Fichter who will become a shareholder of Zur Rose and a consultant for the acquired activities.
Fichter’s son Henning will continue to hold an operational position in the acquired activities and will also be managing director of the diabetes division.
Zur Rose said the transaction would result in a maximum valuation of Apotal of 0.4 x 2020 budgeted revenues, assuming certain growth and profitability targets were achieved.
The transaction, which is subject to approval by the German Federal Cartel Office, is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2020.
Germany is Zur Rose’s biggest market
In the first quarter of 2020, sales at Zur Rose’s German business increased by 15.5% in local currencies to CHF264 million (click here to read the News story).
The German business accounted for 62% of Zur Rose’s total sales, which were up by 15.9% in local currencies to CHF427 million.
Sales at Zur Rose's Switzerland business increased by 14.2% to CHF151 million, accounting for 35% of the total.
Sales by the Rest of Europe business – which covers Spain and France – grew by 63.9% in local currency terms to CHF12.4 million.