Alliance Boots, Britain's biggest pharmacy chain, posted an 11.6 per cent rise in full-year profit and said it had performed well in its new financial year, defying a recession that has hit many of its retail rivals.
But the group, which employs over 110,000 people worldwide, including over 1,630 at 51 outlets in the Republic, said today a restructuring of its pharmaceutical wholesale division would result in about 1,500 job losses.
Alliance Boots also said it was keeping a close eye on Phoenix, the German drug wholesaler that is owned by the family of Adolf Merckle, the German industrialist who committed suicide in January.
“We just continue to monitor developments there as they're a key competitor of ours in a number of markets in which we operate,” finance director George Fairweather told reporters.
Executive chairman Stefano Pessina has previously expressed an interest in bidding for Phoenix, which supplies over 40,000 pharmacies in Europe, should the Merckle family put it up for sale.
Alliance Boots made a trading profit of £953 million (€1.08 billion) for the year to March 31st, on a 15.5 per cent rise in revenue to £20.5 billion.
After finance costs of £705 million, relating to the group's £11 billion buyout in 2007 by Pessina and private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, profit was £101 million.
Revenue increased 4.4 per cent, or 2.9 per cent on a constant currency basis, in the health and beauty retail division, which operates over 3,200 outlets in nine countries.
It was up 17.8 per cent, or 3.8 per cent at constant currency, in the pharmaceutical wholesale division, which serves over 135,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centres and hospitals in 15 countries.
In the group's core British market like-for-like retail revenue increased 1.3 per cent.
Pessina said the results reflected “the underlying strength of our two core business activities, the importance of health and wellbeing to both individuals and governments, and the benefits from transforming our group.”
Reuters