The Irish Times Business Person of the Month: Ger Rabbette

Ger Rabbette, the chief executive of fast-growing pharmaceutical services group Uniphar, has been selected as The Irish Times Business Person of the month for September, an award run in association with Bank of Ireland.

Uniphar defied the Covid-19 pandemic to deliver a 31 per cent surge in profits to €134.3 million in results for the first half of the year announced in September.

Rabbette delivered an increase in operation margin across the business – to 13.9 per cent from 11.8 per cent at the same time last year – on revenues of €964.9 million, up 10.7 per cent.

The performance was again driven by acquisition, a hallmark of Rabbette’s leadership of the business since it floated on the stock market back in 2019.

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Purchase

The group announced the purchase of New York-headquartered BestMSLs Group, which provides outsourced medical affairs services, shortly ahead of its results in a deal reported to be worth €30.2 million. It is seen as increasing Uniphar's presence in the strategically important US market.

That followed Uniphar’s entry into Europe’s largest medtech market with the purchase of German group CoRRect Medical in mid-July in a deal said to be worth about €25 million.

Uniphar now accounts for just over fifth of the retail pharmacy market in the Republic but it is its international business that is expected to lead the charge for future growth.