pl

Wholesale

more than
2.2 thousand

staff

Sales of
PLN 4.8bn
A share of about
20 %

in the market
of wholesale
to pharmacies

20 thousand

orders delivered
every day

About
10 thousand

pharmacies
supplied

More than
29 thousand

stock keeping units

Products sourced
from over
850

manufacturers

1 million

product
packages
sold
daily

More than
70 thousand aquare metres

of warehouse space

More than
70

local
warehouses
supplied

Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna S.A.

PGF is one of the three largest distributors supplying pharmacies in Poland. It manages the operations of 13 regional companies, offering modern tools and a vast range of services, both to pharmacists and pharmaceutical manufacturers. To its customers, it is a reliable partner, supplier and service provider.

2015 saw the 25th year of PGF’s presence on the market. Experience gained through long-term cooperation with all players on the pharmaceutical market helps PGF to better understand market mechanisms, and, consequently, to develop innovative solutions supporting its partners’ businesses. Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna is an integrator of its customers’ business models – understanding and identifying their needs, always with due regard to patients’ welfare, which is central to PGF’s mission:



To satisfy patients’ health needs we strive to keep ahead of market expectations, create innovative business solutions and set standards for business partnerships with pharmacists and pharmaceutical manufacturers – we do our utmost to ensure that patients always get the medication they need.

PGF aims to provide pharmacists with comprehensive support to facilitate their business in a challenging competitive environment. It offers the widest range of medicines and medical products available on the Polish market, including more than 29 thousand items. By subscribing to PGF’s Healthy Choice scheme, small market operators obtain solid business support, enabling them to better manage their pharmacies. Category management helps them adapt the mix of products on sale to changing market trends; the stock optimisation service enhances procurement efficiency, and thanks to e-commerce orders can be placed online and collected from a pharmacy of choice. For pharmacies organised into networks, PGF has built a solid and reliable offering, featuring fast and comprehensive service, implementation of an automatic package reselling system and centralised telemarketing.

PGF works with more than 850 manufacturers of drugs and other products distributed to pharmacies. The manufacturers are offered a comprehensive range of services which extend their market reach and improve sales performance. Vast knowledge of the market, gained through analyses of hundreds of millions of past transactions, allows the company to undertake a number of initiatives in sales support, market research or logistics. PGF is a supplier to more than 10 thousand pharmacies throughout the country. Every day, its regional branches fill over 20 thousand orders for nearly a million drugs and medical products. Their storage facilities and the manner of storing and transporting drugs guarantee their high quality and safe handling.

The Quality Assurance System in place at PGF covers all distribution processes and warrants that products delivered to customers meet the requisite quality standards and come from a legal source. Legislative changes and current regulatory requirements applying to wholesale of medicinal products, including the new Regulation of the Minister of Health on Good Distribution Practice of March 13th 2015 or the new provisions of the Pharmaceutical Law, are monitored and implemented on an ongoing basis.

PGF keeps improving its internal processes and investing in human capital. Besides management skills improvement and leadership programmes, in 2015 the company additionally launched the Talent Manufacture scheme dedicated to account managers as well as partial financing of English language and postgraduate courses.

2015

The pharmbook.pl platform built by PGF offers ready solutions facilitating correct order placement. In 2015, in response to changes in the Pharmaceutical Law, the range of its functionalities was extended to support placement or confirmation of orders electronically.

Pharmbook.pl automatically archives all documents in electronic form, facilitates search for documents, offers access to documents 24 hours a day and guarantees a fast and smooth flow of information between a pharmacy, a wholesaler, and also the Main Pharmaceutical Inspectorate and Provincial Pharmaceutical Inspectorates. Furthermore, a unique complaint lodging and goods returning model has been available through pharmbook.pl starting from 2015.

Also in 2015, PGF implemented a modern telemarketing system, which vastly improved the efficiency of its telemarketing activities, enhanced the call centre’s customer reach ratio and boosted the number of answered calls. To further improve the company’s distribution process, work began to deploy a temperature monitoring system, which ensures comprehensive monitoring of the temperature of transported items in the temperature-controlled supply chain.

In 2015, a decision was made to issue notes on the Catalyst bonds market. PGF issued 100,000 five-year notes, each with a value of PLN 1,000. All of the PGF notes were acquired by financial institutions. Placing the notes with financial investors demonstrates that the growth policy pursued by the company is right and shows that PGF is a credible market player. The notes were first listed on February 18th 2016.

CHALLENGES AND GOALS

2015 was the fourth year in a row when pharmaceutical distributors had to operate in harsher market conditions, in the wake of introduction of the Reimbursement Act on January 1st 2012. Due to the fixed 5% margin on distribution of reimbursable drugs, this part of the product mix has been sold at negative margins, while overall margins of pharmaceutical wholesalers in Poland have eroded to levels that are among the lowest in Europe.

Therefore, it has been PGF’s strategic objective to build sustainable growth through active sales and cooperation with pharmacies across Poland, offering partnership-based support to family-run pharmacies and local pharmacy chains, as well as ensuring the best quality service to pharmacies organised into networks.

The amendment to the Pharmaceutical Law, which took effect on July 12th 2015, coupled with the new Good Distribution Practice, impose additional duties on wholesalers and increase their operating costs.

To respond to these challenges, PGF has initiated and continues to pursue projects whose aim is to put in place new improvements for pharmacies and to adapt the business to the new legal framework. The company has also been analysing processes and developing procedures to meet the new requirements of Good Distribution Practice.

PGF’s long-term objectives:
  • to increase market share in the private pharmacy segment,
  • to develop services offered as part of the Healthy Choice scheme and to increase the number of entities covered by the scheme,
  • to become the preferred partner to network pharmacies through continuous service improvement,
  • to continuously improve customer service, e.g. through continued enhancement of telemarketing.

Pharmapoint Sp. z o.o.

Pharmapoint Sp. z o.o. is a leader in sales to other pharmaceutical wholesalers, supplying more than 70 such local operators.

By improving its distribution and logistics services, the company continually expands its offering for other market segments. In 2015, more suppliers chose to use Pharmapoint’s distribution services on an exclusive basis. A wide range of sales and marketing services makes the company a strategic distribution partner for an increasing number of pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The company expands its logistics base and enhances the quality of its services on a regular basis. Pharmapoint guarantees proper storage of pharmaceutical products in various temperature ranges with a 24/7 monitoring system. In 2015, the company expanded its technical facilities at the Poznań warehouse. As a further measure, the distribution system was reorganised, with the efficiency of Pharmapoint’s logistics considerably improved − the number of shipments rose by more than 20% on 2014. The company also began upgrading its central warehouse in Łódź by introducing advanced systems, such as automatic temperature logging.

Pharmapoint Sp. z o.o. seeks to offer its trading partners, both customers and manufacturers, the best and most advanced solutions. New forms of business partnership, a growing range of marketing services, and tailored distribution services on an exclusive basis − these are just a few solutions proposed by the company. Openness to new forms of cooperation coupled with continuous analysis of pharmaceutical market trends allow Pharmapoint Sp. z o.o. to meet its partners’ expectations.