Businessman Ovidiu Buluc, who Farmexim drug distributor, says next year's budget will rely on a sales increase by over 15% and a 25% rise in operating income from 2009, with the final draft of the budget to be ready this month.
"Last week, I had a meeting with regional managers and we discussed the main lines of the budget. We want to reach a 9% market share next year, while operating income will rise by at least 25% compared with this year," Buluc told ZF in an interview.
The distributor now accounts for more than 8% of the market, according to provided data, securing it a place among the top ten players in the field. In 2010, the company plans to operate investments worth around 1m euros after having had no projects this year.
As regards operating expenses, Farmexim wants them to fall below 7%. "We don't have many areas left where we can operate cuts," says Buluc, who adds he has not hired any more people this year.
The distributor intends to relinquish around 1,000 drugstores to which it makes deliveries out of a total of 3,400-3,500 clients, namely around 30%.
"These are drugstores that are unable to make further payments or make very small orders. All of these present a very high risk as regards financial and economic creditworthiness. The moves the government has made recently can only lead to the bankruptcy and closing of hundreds of drugstores," Buluc believes.
In the first nine months of this year, the distributor reached turnover worth 545m RON (130m euros), up 29% from the same period of last year. This period's results were above initial estimates, which pointed to a 20% increase. At the same time, according to the current estimates, Farmexim could see a 25% increase by the end of the year.
"A lot of small distributors started selling less and less, as they get no more loans from suppliers. This was probably reflect
