The large Dutch mail-order pharmacy, the Shop-Apotheke, continues to grow. The listed company recently presented sales increases and prescription growth of eleven percent on the basis of preliminary and unaudited calculations, which will be available as audited results on 17 March 2020. However, a growth spurt can already be clearly seen today. The shop pharmacy has 7,000 paper recipes per day, and the trend is rising. However, with the introduction of electronic recipes from 2021, the market will still expand across the board, according to the expectations of Stefan Feltens, CEO of the online mail-order company. While the turnover in 2018 was „only“ 540 million euros, it has increased by about 30 percent in 2019 with a forecast of 701 million euros. In the same period, an increase from 3.5 million customers to 4.7 million active customers who order medicines on the Internet can also be observed – a clear trend towards online purchasing of medicines and co. Of the total volume of prescription medicines worth 40 billion euros in 2018, online mail order accounted for only one percent. However, experts expect a drastic increase in sales and results in the next few years, thanks to the imminent introduction of e-prescription. Consumers buy medicines and other things on the Internet because they see benefits for themselves, which in turn benefits mail-order companies such as shop pharmacies. On 1 February 2020, the Dutch mail-order company will have a new CFO. Jasper Eenhorst, 47 years old and also a Dutchman, is a proven financial expert who is well versed in the growing e-commerce division of the supermarket chain Albert Heijn as CFO. He will bring all his experience to bear and exploit the potential of this online segment.
