Alliance Unichem Plc is planning to launch its e-commerce services under the
name pharmology.com before the end of the year (see p531).
The company revealed in its results for the first six months of 2000, released
on September 20, that it was planning to spend £2.8m over the year establishing
its new e-business division.
Overall, Alliance Unichem’s performance was affected by the weakness of
the euro, which depreciated by 10 per cent in the first half of the year. Group
turnover was up 1.3 per cent at £3.04bn (E4.99bn) on the same period last
year. Pre-tax profits rose 9.5 per cent to £61m (E100m).
In the United Kingdom, Unichem Ltd reported operating profits of £22m
on a turnover of £815m. Moss Pharmacy saw operating profits rise 48 per
cent to £18.3m from sales which rose 30 per cent to £255m. Moss
had 718 pharmacies in its chain at the end of June, including 48 in-store pharmacies
which are to be transferred to Asda (PJ, September 23, p440).
Overseas, Alliance Unichem now has 14 pharmacies in the Netherlands, 15 in Switzerland
and eight in Italy.