The Dr. Wolff Group (Dr. August Wolff responsible for pharmaceuticals and Dr. Kurt Wolff responsible for cosmetics) from Bielefeld with its branded products Plantur, Alpecin, Alcina, Linola, Vagisan, Biorepair and Karex has drawn a positive balance for the first quarter of 2020. In particular, the pharmacy business performed well despite the Corona pandemic, especially in Germany. Hamster purchases as well as the disinfectant product brand Linolasept for hand disinfection ensured that Dr. Wolff was able to record a 10 percent increase in sales in Germany to 68 million euros. Overall, however, the company found it more difficult to cope with foreign sales and only achieved an increase in turnover of seven percent to 88 million euros, as foreign business brought the group a four percent drop in turnover. The products Linola did particularly well with a sales increase of twelve percent, but Plantur and Vagisan as a gynaecological product also scored well with an increase of eleven percent, as did the oral hygiene products Biorepair and Karex. At Alcina, business collapsed due to Corona (hairdressers), and was thus one percent below the previous year’s level, as was the case in 2019, when Alcina also posted total annual sales of 44 million euros, one percent below the 2018 level. In 2019, it also became apparent that Dr. Wolff’s pharmaceutical sector was performing better than the cosmetics sector, which in some cases stagnated or grew only slightly. Vagisan, for example, grew by eleven percent to 35 million euros in 2019, while products such as Biorepair and Karex stagnated; Alpecin and Plantur grew by only one and three percent respectively. The Pharmaceuticals division then grew by four percent to a total of 90 million euros, which represented a share of 29 percent in 2019. Dr. Wolff sees the Covid 19 crisis as a fresh start and does not look back, because process optimization, including the creation of new training positions, is intended to bring the eCommerce and digital sector forward. For the dermatics division Dr. Wolff is facing rosy times, as a glycopyrronium bromide cream against excessive sweat production is to be approved in the near future and then successfully marketed so that a total turnover of 313 million Euro (242 million Germany, 72 million abroad) as in 2019 can probably be targeted again despite negative corona effects.
