The big competitor to DocMorris, Shop-Apotheke, is on the upswing, primarily due to the Corona crisis, but also due to the new e-prescription orientation of the mail-order company from the Netherlands.
By almost a whopping 40 percent (38.1 percent), sales grew in 2020 to over 968 million Eu-ro. For 2021, sales growth of more than 20 percent is expected.
Since the company was founded almost 20 years ago, the mail order company has always been in the red. In 2020, however, Shop-Apotheke achieved a positive adjusted Ebitda margin of 2.2 percent for the first time, compared with a minus of 1.9 percent in the previous year. For 2021, the Group, which operates worldwide, expects a positive corridor of between 2.3 and 2.8 percent. According to the company, gross profit, triggered by the Corona crisis, grew by 59.4 percent from 137.7 million euros to an unexpected 219.5 million euros.
In addition, CEO Stefan Feltens expects an increase in Rx sales from the current 1.5 percent to eight to twelve percent, as the company’s focus is clearly on the e-prescription strategy, which is to be further driven per-sonally with the specially established „Task Force eRx First“ and which could continue to trigger a boom in the next few years. However, an explosion in sales is not expected for the time being in the near future, Feltens explains. Also because of the Rx bonus ban, the e-prescription will not have a major impact on business in 2021. A boost is not expected until 2022, when the introduction of eRezept becomes mandatory for all players.
However, like DocMorris, the performance limit was recently reached at Shop-Apotheke, although it is one of the big winners in the Corona pandemic. However, Shop-Apotheke does not have as many delivery problems as its competitor from the Netherlands.
The level of automation of Shop Pharmacy of the new logistics center in Sevenum has ensured an increase in the export of packages internationally. Another new center is planned for 2021, in the summer, which in turn will provide further capacity. The resulting doubling of capacity will lead to 35 million parcels being shipped annually.
Stefan Feltens expects the pharmacy market to become increasingly dynamic, which is why the expansion of the „Same Day Delivery“ concept is so important for the group, which is headquartered in Venlo, the Netherlands, in order to keep the competition at bay. Shop-Apotheke still ships to the Rhine-Ruhr area from its neighboring country, while other areas in Germany are served by a few select local partner pharmacies.
In addition the Shop pharmacy tries also the supply with rapid tests in the Corona Pandemie over discount actions to itself to seize. In Austria this succeeds already over Ra-batt battles, in this country there are still problems with permission and availability. Once all imponderables have been eliminated, tests for laypersons can be distributed on a large scale.
Source: Apotheke-Adhoc