Superdrug: Retail Transparency
Category: Drugstores
German Fight on Czech Soil
Germans are for drugstores what French are for supermarkets, the masters of the game.
And in Europe the game for market shares is on high stakes, the Germans took the combat outside their ground to neighboring markets, specifically to Czech Republic, where 3 major German drugstore players, Schlecker, Rossmann and DM-Drogerie Markt are having a fierce fight for the loyalty of Czech consumers.
DM Private Label on Amazon.de
German discount drugstore DM (Drogerie Markt) started selling its private label products under the different DM-brands online on Amazon.de, the latter will take care of the sales and distribution.
The cooperation is expected to be mutually beneficial. For DM it will be interesting to test consumer interest for its personal care products on the internet without having to invest in online logistics itself.
In case it would appear that online sales of relatively low-priced private labels will be a profitable business model, DM could decide to open its own web store.
Drogerie Koliber
In May 2000, a small group of enthusiastic, experienced and ambitious merchants, specialized in personal care and home care, decided to join forces and develop their own organizational concept which led to the creation of Drogerie Koliber in Poland (Koliber stands for Hummingbird).
After six months, in November 2000, the Group had already 15 members, which allowed the association to be created.
The sales activities started on 21 March 2002 by issuing the first newspaper advertising, which still appears regularly at the end of each month.
During the years 2002-2005, the potential of the Association grew both quantitatively and qualitatively so that during the Assembly Election Reporting and that received on 25 May 2005, a resolution was passed to establish a capital company.
Koliber increased the number of outlets during 2010-2011. Currently the chain has 74 stores, and since
Emperia acquired from individuals who are shareholder, 100% of the share capital and entitling to 100% of the votes at the general meeting of shareholders, 27 new stores joined the list.
Koliber drugstores also work actively to strengthen and increase their brand awareness among Polish consumers.
You can read more about other Polish drugstores in this old post on my blog.
hebe – Health & Beauty
The drugstore industry in Poland is getting more and more exciting with the arrival of a new player, hebe and the opening of their 1st store in Warsaw (Al. Jerozolimskie 11/19) on the 24th of May 2011.
Hebe is the drugstore project of Jeronimo Martins in Poland, where they also operate Biedronka, the 1,600 point-of-sale hard discount chain.
Before discovering what hebe means, I thought that it is the combination of the first 2 letters of health and beauty, then to find out that hebe drugstores got their name from the name of Greek goddess, in the mythology that is the epitome of eternal beauty.
hebe is a unique combination of the highest standards of service, leading brands and best prices on the market. – says Pedro da Silva Pereira, Country Manager of JM Polska.
The store is spacious, compared to other drugstores, there is enough room between the shelves and the different categories, they are using shelves management system for well-ordered displays, excellent lighting reflecting on the white tiles. They have a very beautifully designed shopping baskets, but store security did not allow to take photos.
Their 1st leaflet has a totally different design than the competitors and is printed on very high quality paper, offering many promotions and a discount voucher of 10PLN for every purchase of 40PLN.
Poland Drugstores Scene
The Polish drugstore sector is extensively developed with international players, as well strong and focused local ones. In 1993 Rossmann (Germany) entered the Polish market and today is the leader of the market with 500 stores all over the country and have 40% market share. The company intends to open 80-100 stores each year and expects to manage 1,000 stores by 2015. The company wants also to increase its range to about 17,000 products including their private label brands.
Schlecker, another German player, entered the Polish market in 1994 with their first store in Poznan, actually I could not find any updated information about the company, number of stores and its operation in Poland. One things i have noticed is the new logo on their main site launched in January 2011, but so far the stores signs are still showing the old logo.
Super-Pharm, with 26 stores in 2010, located throughout Poland, combined to produce $160 million in sales, or an average of $6.5 million per store. Super-Pharm’s plans for Poland call for some 70 drug stores to be operational by 2015.
The amazing challenger is Natura, a promising Polish chain that started in 1997 and has a huge potential and should be monitored closely, as in my opinion will grow on the fast path. With 250 stores and a competent staff, their stores can be found both in shopping centers and galleries, as well in major cities and smaller towns. Natura employs 1,200 people and have around 8,000 products in their stores.
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AT: Drugstores In Austria
The strong position of drugstores and the increase of supermarkets/hypermarkets’ activity in cosmetics and toiletries dominated the retail landscape in Austria for the last few years. Private label was pushed in these distribution channels as it offers added profits at low risk, mimicking the best selling brands.
Drugstores are dominated by chains: Bipa, DM Drogeriemarkt and Schlecker.
Bipa and Billa, one of the large supermarket chains in Austria, belongs to the German Rewe group and offers the same private label brands and thus generates a stronger brand impression of its range.
They made further attempts to build upon their specific strengths as specialists: in the case of Schlecker, a very deep market penetration; in the case of DM Drogeriemarkt, the offering of services such as hairdressing; and in the case of Bipa, an upmarket move with more premium brands.
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UK: Pharmacies, Chemists, Drugstores
| Pharmacies, also known as Chemists or Drugstores, are part of the British culture, below is a small list of few of them that I visited during my stay in London. |
Alliance Boots plc (LSE: AB.) is a British based pharmaceuticals company, operating as a high street retailer, pharmacist and pharmaceuticals wholesaler. Alliance Boots is the dominant pharmacy chain in Britain with a 17% market share[1]. Retail operations are carried out under the Boots The Chemist and Alliance Pharmacies brandsNote 1. Alliance Boots is also the largest pharmaceuticals wholesaler in the UK through their UniChem subsidiary with a 40% market share. Alliance Boots are a constituent of the FTSE 100. As the third largest pharmacy chain in Europe, Alliance Boots employs around 100,000 staff and operates around 3,000 retail stores, around 2,700 of these have pharmacies. Around 380 depots support this retail network. Alliance Boots is headquartered in London, England. In terms of retail space, Alliance Boots ranks as one of the largest high street retailers in the UK. |
Lloydspharmacy is a pharmacy chain in the UK. It operates over 1,520 pharmacies, located primarily within local communities and health centres. Lloydspharmacy is owned by Celesio, which recently raised concerns of the July 2006 merger of Alliance Unichem and Boots the Chemist that formed Alliance Boots. Lloyds pharmacy was founded by Allen Lloyd from Atherstone, England. It is estimated he made a £32 million fortune from the Lloyds Pharmacy empire. |
Numark Ltd is a chain of independent pharmacies in the UK. With over 1800 outlets throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland they are the largest such chain in the UK. Each pharmacy business within Numark is an independent outlet, but membership of Numark allows individual retailers to take advantage of group purchasing deals to reduce their costs. Numark also offers marketing support, including demographic research for product targeting purposes, to its members. Numark also has a range of Own Brand products such as vitamins, otc medicines and toiletries. |
Superdrug is the UK’s second largest health and beauty retail chain (behind Boots) and the sixth largest overall (behind Boots, Tesco, Sainsburys, ASDA and Morrisons). Superdrug is a national company with over 740 stores in the UK employing over 13,000 people with retail jobs. The stores serve over 4.5 million customers each week with over £1 billion per year. Its mission is to provide up-to-the-minute heath and beauty products. Superdrug has over 10,000 products in its stores; it supplies vitamins, toiletries, drinks and snacks, photographic film accessories, newspapers, magazines and household accessories. Superdrug’s own brand manufactures do not commission animal testing on any own brands, products or ingredients, although they no longer guarantee that these ingredients have not been tested on animals previously. |