Allcare pharmacy owner Uniphar eyes German, French deals

Uniphar, the owner of the Allcare and Life pharmacy chains, is eyeing acquisitions in France, Germany, and other parts of mainland Europe as it looks to further expand its presence across the continent.

The pharmacy and healthcare services group is actively looking to grow its key commercial and clinical division — which links pharmaceutical product manufacturers with their customers — internationally.

Late last year it expanded the business into the Baltic region with the purchase of medtech service provider EPS, which is active across Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland.

Uniphar’s medium-term plans include growing the commercial and clinical division through acquisition across France, Germany, Poland, Austria and Switzerland. Uniphar already has a presence in the Benelux region.

In recent years, Uniphar has boosted its wholesale, distribution and supply divisions through the purchase of Sisk Healthcare and Cahill May Roberts in Ireland.

It boosted its domestic business further last year with the purchase of Irish medtech service provider M3 Medical.

Since raising €135m through an IPO last summer, Uniphar has also bought UK drug distributor Durbin.

In a full-year trading update, ahead of the publication of its 2019 annual results at the end of March, Uniphar said it saw profit growth across all divisions last year and is targeting mid-single digit organic gross profit growth for 2020.

“Our trading update...positions us to deliver our plan for 2020, consistent with our medium term outlook. We are delivering on our committed strategy in our growth divisions,” said group CEO Ger Rabbette.