Yeah, guten Morgen und herzlich-
Good morning, and a very warm welcome to Galenica Investors Day here in Zürich and also on the live stream. Welcome. I'm Tanya König, and I'm thrilled that I'll be able to lead you through today. Now we're going to talk about a host of topics, and after every topic, of course, there will be a Q&A. Now, if you're on the live stream, you may submit your questions in writing or via audio or even video. I'd like to ask the host of today's meeting to come to the stage, Galenica CFO, Felix Burkhard.
Good morning.
Good morning, Felix. Now, last time, the Investors Day took place two years ago in Interlaken, so what do you have in store for us today?
A very warm welcome, first of all. I'm happy that so many of you have found a way to Zürich, and a very warm welcome to all the guests who are following us online today. Now, our umbrella topic is going to be innovation. Now, Marc is going to talk about innovation at Galenica, and then we'll give you several insights into the status and the implementation of our strategic programs, omni-channel and care transformation, but also L ogistics & IT. Now, we have several market booths that will give you specific examples of our initiatives. And to round out, I'd like to give you a summary of what has been presented and to also point out what these initiatives mean in the medium term for us, and hope you have an exciting day today.
Thank you so much, Felix. See you later on. And now, to give you an overview of the overall strategy, I'd like to ask Marc Werner to the floor, our CEO.
Guten Morgen, Marc.
Good morning, Marc. How are you?
Great! Great, always better in the evenings, but this is a wonderful occasion. There are so many people here, and so many people are following us on the monitors, on the screens, so that's exciting.
Now, a new parliament was elected in Switzerland on Sunday, so a slight drift to the right. How will that impact your business?
Now, the good thing about healthcare is that it's very important for politicians, so the left-leaning parties tend to support us, but there are also conservative parties that really support us, and that's why I have been neutral. Of course, as a citizen, you have your own opinions, and you're entitled to them, but in my capacity, I am neutral.
Now, politicians need innovations from the branch of industry. Now, we're talking about innovation today, which is a husk, really. It's a buzzword. What does it mean to you?
Well, the term has evolved, hasn't it? If you asked people, you know, your own age, then they would be sure what to say, what the big innovations were. I don't know, the car, the iPhone, possibly. But there are fewer and fewer things that you could put under the header of innovation. Innovation today is rather experience of processes, such as the Amazons. So Amazon, you could buy everything before, but the customer experience was innovated. So what we see every day, if when you go shopping in a supermarket in Switzerland, you have a self-checkout these days where you pay yourself. That's an innovation, but I mean, purchasing was there before. A checkout counter was there before.
What we really have to do is to really boost the customer's experience, to make it simpler, to make the process simpler, and that's what we need innovation for.
Now, transformation, that is a strategic program for Galenica, and we cannot see that here in the slide. Now, Marc, almost every company is talking about innovation, so what's so specific for Galenica about it?
Now, I believe it's about the fact that we have our own Galenica story. We have strategic innovation programs. One of them is transformation, which shows the value we attach to that.
Now, what is transformation?
It's, of course, to drive innovation, to enable people to take that extra step, to open up new opportunities, to be creative. We have 8,000 people at Galenica, so it does make sense, I believe, to have a business development to cater to them. We have 8,000 people who may innovate, but the culture and the organization needs to be there in order to make that happen. And innovation, as Thomas Watson said, is not a guarantee against or for success or against failure. But without failure and without innovation, failure is guaranteed.
So if we can't innovate, we've lived, we've covered quite some ground. What do we need to have innovation?
We need clear-cut vision, a clear-cut strategy, and living values. Now, of course, everybody has easily put that on paper. Now, the values will be committed to paper within a matter of five minutes, but you have to implement them. Second, you need a corporate culture, which is characterized by trust, by transparency, and yet another buzzword of agility, in order to make sure that everything can be really fleshed out. Third, of course, we require the readiness to invest in technology on the one hand, because technology enables innovation and transformation, but we also need the staff. And in order to put everything into practice, we need good staff, and you have to be ready to invest in them.
Strategy and vision, we have that for Galenica. Now, the staff that you mentioned, what are you doing for them?
Well, we defined three years ago, quite clearly, that the servant l eadership is our basic principle. So, we will hear more about that topic later on. So what does that imply? Now, the second point that I really believe in is you can no longer work in silos, with where IT works alongside marketing, alongside product, alongside sales. We have to bring the organization together to develop products and services. So, and that's a bit DevOps. So they will all have to work together in agile constructs. Why? Because you may identify the needs of the customers better, and second, implement them and take them to market, those needs. The third thing that we also built upon are role models. So like pharmacies, they are no longer the traditional stores.
They have evolved, and today, what it's all about is to have the best personnel possible. Of course, there's a shortage of personnel, not only in pharmacies, also in pharmacies, and we need good people. Of course, that's changed. When I was 25 and applied for my first job, you really hoped fervently to get that job, and today you have proud people facing you, and they ask you what you can do for them. So, what is going to be their role in the company? And if you have role models, you can really accentuate more strongly in a pharmacy, because it's not easy for a pharmacy today to show to pharmacists what they can do, really, to help the business along.
So we have to make sure that is in place in order to be an attractive employer in the market so that people may want to work with us.
Well, communication is important, you said, and transparency. How about that, especially in a listed company like yours?
I've had nothing but good experience. The corporate philosophy will only work if you have a high degree of trust, of course. So that's of prime importance. If you really have a groove in the company that you don't trust people, that won't work. But if you trust them, you have open communication with everyone, and communication and involvement of the entire team, that is such an important precondition to really make things happen.
You can't build a bubble at the top and really hedge all the knowledge there, and then expect staffers to innovate every day and to be happy about things. You have to be transparent. As I said, I've had nothing but good experiences. People know how to deal with information. Communication at eye level. I'm just on a higher podium so that you can see me better. So communication at eye level, that's so crucial, and you can only do that if you really do away with hierarchies, not only structurally speaking. Because that would be just a technical thing. It's really to talk to customers and work with them and not to have that top senior management, middle management, and staffers. You have to unite them in one world.
My third point is direct personal communication. As I said, go out there, as a top manager, as a senior management, go out, talk to people, communicate with them, and really live that philosophy, not only via PowerPoint, but walk the talk and really take it out there. That's the most essential thing.
I believe you have that Lunch Lottery because I'm thinking about the implementation.
Yes, Lunch Lottery. There's many other things, but that's a software. You match and mix at random with somebody else for lunch. So you go to lunch with someone, sometimes the people that I'd never meet or that I'd never have lunch with, and that's so exciting. So, in Galenica, I was in Ticino, we paired up with one another, and I worked on my Italian there.
It was totally exciting. So every second Monday of the month at 11:00 A.M., from the top managers down through the managers of pharmacies, we have a call where we communicate what is going on. Somebody presents a topic that they're working on. So, so for the sake of transparency, transparency, transparency. Even though it might not always work well, we talk about it.
So it's, it's all about feeling good with one another, with... But it's also about figures.
Well, it's about creating added value, and people want that. They want to take part, they want to participate, they want to go home at night and say, "I'm important to that company. I made my customers happy. I did a good job. I helped my colleague out." So, that really helps enormously to have transparency, because many systems will become more transparent if you talk about them, because you see what has been done, the performance, the non-performance also.
So we have a high degree of discipline in the system. And as you were saying, I personally believe that happy staffers and happy personnel who love their work, who love to go to work, create a better customer experience, and that creates happy customers, and they take money to the corporation that we may then invest in dividends, in staffers and what have you. And that's truly a virtuous circle, and that's why the entire management organization has put customer satisfaction and personnel satisfaction first. That's part of our targets, because we believe that creates added value and corporate value.
That sounds great. Now, what would be the most important takeaways for a successful, innovative company?
Now, first off, I would say, I have to really drill deep into the details, and we'll hear more about that. Daniele is going to talk about services, and I believe that's an output of what I've talked about. Service, innovate, create new services, market them. And we'll hear from Andreas about the innovations in Logistics. And Thomas is going to talk about digital, the omni-channel structure and infrastructure. Markus and Lukas are going to talk about e-prescriptions and how we deal with technology vis-à-vis the customers. And at the end of the day, you have to drill down until you arrive at the specific topics.
Quite obviously, the bottom line could be that it has to be meaningful for the organization, because we have one huge advantage at Galenica. We don't have to do purpose workshops because the vision is the purpose. If I worked in a company that produces these glasses, nothing against them. This glass would have to have a workshop, though, in a company like that, so that people know what this is all about. It's about innovating and solving problems. Solving problems that our customers have. That's what innovation is for. Third, for the far reach, it's important that we shouldn't always opt for 100%. So really create an MVP, test and further develop things. That's a culture of failure also.
If you have a zero tolerance corporation, you will not evolve, and the framework context is given by our servant leadership.
Thank you very much, Marc, for your explanations. Now it's up to you. If you have questions for Marc on innovation and transformation, now's the time. Please ask your questions, make your comments. Let me look around the room, whether there are immediate questions here.
Yeah. Yes, please.
Feldges with NZZ. One question, a spontaneous question that just arose. Now, you talked about personnel, and, of course, you have really personnel that interacts with customers and others on other levels. When I go to a pharmacy, I tend to notice that an assistant really blusters a bit, and as if they were the pharmacist themselves. So how do you make sure that people don't take things too far? And really just to tell customers what they're allowed to tell them, because there are limits.
Oh, yes, there are limits, and we have pharmacists, and they could answer your questions. I mean, but there are limits, the statutory job description, what have you. Now, we separate that quite clearly in a pharmacy. Now, 80%, I'm looking to my head pharmacist in the back. When talking about 80%, they tend to really hesitate, because in a pharmacy, you have 100%, not the 80%, that I'd mentioned before. Now, we're talking about what is your job and what isn't. So how do you put things in context? How would processes evolve? How efficient would you be? So no longer the more effective job per se, because that's for the leadership personnel to do that.
Thank you. Are there any further questions? Yeah, there is one. The microphone is there.
Jan Koch from Deutsche Bank. Jan Koch, Deutsche Bank. A question: the pharmacies, they offer different services already that go beyond what is in the ordinary pharmacies when it comes to information. Do you see other competencies or offers that you would like to include in the coming 5 to 10 years in your pharmacies?
Well, quite a number of them that we can go further when it comes to services. We also have a first pilot pharmacy that we opened in Zollikofen yesterday, one week ago, where we go further than what we offer in services. We see the future of the pharmacies together with the doctors, really. It's really that we want to be the first point of information when it comes to health questions.
There is specialist demands in GP practices in Switzerland. We will see a lack of GPs in Switzerland in the coming years. So with our technical competence in pharmacies, we can be a part of the overall systems. The GP does not have to deal with it anymore because the pharmacy can deal with it if we have the correct services and the infrastructure, and we have to work in the Zollikofen pilot pharmacy, for example, so we can make a contribution when it comes to the increase in costs and premiums. It doesn't make sense for patients, you know, a small ailment that I go to the GP right away. Very often in Switzerland, it really costs CHF 200 if you go to a doctor, no matter what you suffer from.
So it's really, it does make sense to also go to a pharmacy for first aid.
I do not know about the situation in Switzerland, but what about the election? Can that be helpful so that pharmacies get more competencies, or doesn't it have any influence?
It's not quite as easy to answer that question. That left-right scheme does not really fit for the health sector. What will be important for us on the thirteenth of December, there's a Federal Council that will be elected, and the new health minister will be elected at the beginning of next year by the Federal Council. So this is really important for us: who will be the health minister? The existing health minister will retire after 12 years, so that is really an important issue for us.
Another question here?
Cantonal Bank.
Cantonal Bank. When it comes to the staff and happy staff seems to good innovation. I like that approach. What about your procedure? How do you proceed? How do you, you know, get them involved via, say, a webpage, or do you have workshops? How do you do it?
Well, these topics that we've talked about, thank you for that question. Of course, there are different variants. We have a very decentralized company, really. So there are 21 different brands and business units. We do not want to centralize everything. It's really up to the individual units to optimize their customer interface to work out new ideas. Together with the board, we focused on the care area. There are different units that deal with care, then there is the area that deals with logistics, then another unit that deals with IT. So we don't really want to centralize everything. We want to be as near to the customer as possible. We don't want to have a blackboard somewhere in the headquarters that deals with everything. In the business units, what about the staff members? How can they get involved in concrete terms?
Well, it's not that big a business unit as it is. So there's MediService for the live stream, for instance. So they were really small units with a small structure that can be more reactive also. So via management to the customer, that's really an easy path. It's easier to manage everything and, you know, management organization and all the others. There are certain models , t hat's client, s o for instance, there's that BizDevOps, the value streams, as we call them. And then we're talking about the different competencies that we join together from the different organizations. And we create them step by step to make sure that we have, you know, an experience throughout the entire company, and we all collaborate here for the overall good.
There's another question here?
Stefan Schneider from Vontobel.
Stefan Schneider.
We talked about innovation quite a bit. What about the two or three major innovations in the past few years, and what about the next innovations, if you can talk about those for the coming years?
Well, from my point of view, if I take a look at the strategic programs, there's the omni-channel program, the Care program, and the Professionals program. So these are the three market segments that we talk about, where we have transformation and efficiency that we focus on. And in these three programs, over the past few years, we have paved the way for what we will do in the future. We will hear about the omni-channel. It's a completely different situation than three years ago for the customer experience, the digital interface, for instance. When it comes to care, there are services that are completely different than three years ago. We double the number of services that we provide on a regular basis. We have a high demand from the side of the customer.
There are a lot of new services that are being developed, and we will also do high investments in that field. We will hear from Markus Sager. He will talk about HCI Solutions, and he will talk about the electronic patient journey. So that's a completely different league than it was three years ago. If he will talk about the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital and what the patients go through, the entire chain, that everything can be made visible on a digital level. So these are topics that today, tomorrow, and the day after will be of great importance, and we want to pursue that path. We do not need a fundamental change here. I think omni-channel care area and, of course, the entire area of IT health, we have great potential, and if we pursue that coherently, we will make headway.
Another topic is partnerships. That's also important for innovation. Olaf will talk about the Redcare Pharmacy CEO, and together with André Lüscher from MediService, he's the CEO there. So that's also a form of innovation. A few years ago, we would have not been really be able to have a JV with an international company in Switzerland, and that JV, well, will create major value for the consumers, for patients in Switzerland, and also for our stakeholders.
Thank you. That's a teaser already, what we can be looking forward to. Thank you, Marc Werner. We... You will certainly be back on the panel for the panel discussion at a later stage. Thank you for the time being.
Now we come to the first presentation, and the Chief of Product and Marketing—on th t opic of omni-channel, Thomas Szuran will give you an update. He's the Chief of Product and Marketing. He will give us an update here.
Good morning. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. On the first slide, see Frau Peter.
Well, here you see Mrs. Peter. She is 43 years of age, and she goes to the pharmacy with red eyes. She checked in the internet in the morning for the cause, possible cause, and she was a little scared and for what she read. She looked in the internet. She found a specialist person near her job. She went to an Amavita pharmacy, and she had a wonderful talk with the pharmacist, and she returned home, or rather, to her job, after a few discussions with that pharmacist. So what would we have to develop on behalf of Galenica to make that a reality?
What about Mr. Ulrich? He's 73 years of age. He suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol level, and vitamin D deficient. He is fit. He goes to the Coop Vitality pharmacy, picks up his medication on a regular basis. But today, the pharmacy pharmacist tells him that his permanent prescription has expired and that he has to really check anew. And for Mr. Ulrich and the pharmacist, that's an unfortunate situation. So what we can do on behalf of Galenica to avoid such a situation?
The third example... Madame Dubois. Madame Dubois. Health conscious, she values good skincare. She is a trusted customer to the, of the Sun Store because of the competent advice that she gets there, medically and also cosmetically. But at the last visit, she was not so happy. Her favorite skincare was not available, and the new color for her lipstick that she heard about in social media, unfortunately, was sold out. The pharmaceutical assistant really wanted to take every effort and take the order, and make sure that she can pick up the the offers in the coming days. So what can we do?
Last example, Mrs. Sommer, 25, mother of twins. She loves to go to the Amavita pharmacy in her quarter because she's well informed about the health of her children. However, the budget of the young family is limited, so she said that formula will, of course, be ordered, but via the internet to save some money. So how do we address that, that customer group?
So these four examples all share one thing in common. When it comes to health, customers like to go to a pharmacy. That was the case, that is the case today, and that will be the case in the future, too. That's also the basis for our business, really. However, what will change is the way in which that the customers move around in that pharmacy world. And it's our task, and we see it on the next slide, to take a look at today's permanent pharmacy, business. The brick-and-mortar business will be further developed. That's our business. So the customer desires can be... It's about price, convenience, services, and fast availability.
That's what the areas of expectations are, and we, in Switzerland, want to focus on that in Switzerland for the customer experience, really. We are convinced that we cannot do that by going it alone. We really need two approaches. We need the omni-channel pharmacy, and the pure online player is the second one. Why is that the case? Let's take a look at the prices and convenience. The online certainly can provide the best service. The price-sensitive customer and online customers can be covered by that. And when it comes to the range, also, the pure online player is also in a better position because very often he can offer an open market space and have more on offer.
So these online customers, that's why we have that joint venture with the Redcare Pharmacy. Olaf Heinrich will talk about the Redcare Pharmacy right after that. And apart from the pure online player, we also have a physical pharmacy network for omni-channel pharmacies. To online, offline, in order to make it work, the digital world and the physical world requires, of course, an expansion of the network of the digital and the physical pharmacies to make available the products. And on the next slide, you will see one example. This is the symbol, that's symbiosis, and a few examples. What will we develop? What can we offer? Let's take a look at the prescription manager, the expiry of Mr. Ulrich's prescriptions. That's a major problem for many patients.
They do not really remember what kind of prescriptions they have. Often they don't remember how often they should take their medication, and if you have a permanent prescription, you know that it is available, when it goes, to the pharmacy for the first time, and you have no idea when the prescription expires. That's the challenges. So we asked the customers, "What's the major challenge ?" And they said, "Well, prescription management, that's really the most important problem." Prescription manager is an online service, prescriptions and medicines. The prescription manager will remind you: when do I need to order a new package? Because if I take medication on a regular basis, I should know when the blister will be empty. Then, the tool will remind you of ordering a new one in the pharmacy.
The tool will say, "Well, the prescription expires with a GP, so please make an appointment with your GP." The tool really also reflects upon what the patient needs. It works well, and the patient can already use it. If you want to, over the lunch break, you can take a look at the marketplace, and Mr. Nussbaum will show you how it works. Then our aim is, in two years' time, that all the patients with permanent prescriptions will use the prescription manager. That's the goal. And of course, we further develop the tool. That's the aim. The aim is that the GP directly goes via the prescription manager. There's an eMediplan that Mr. Lukas will talk about, and Markus will talk about it later. They will be connected.
So an integrated, care is really the goal, so the doctor, the, pharmacy, and the patient work together. Then the webshop. On the 3rd of October, Amavita webshop went live. Marc mentioned it, MVP, Minimum Viable Product. That's a functioning webshop with a certain functionality, so that you find products, that you can order products, and it really offers all that a webshop have on offer. It's a starting, it's an initial product. It will be further developed. 5% of the traffic will go via that new webshop, and the rest will be developed. It will be quicker, more stable, the top products can be found in a better way, and that will lead us to a next generation of webshops.
By the summer of 2024, all the three formats, Amavita and Sun Store and, will be mentioned here. And of course, the aim is to also make turnover. The direct potential, however, has its limits, which is why we chose a parallel, the pure online player partner, too. The primary goal of our webshop is to have a digital entry portal in, to be, the, entry portal for our digital, pharmacy. And Mrs. Dubois will benefit from that, the one with the skin care product that was sold out. So in future, she will directly be able to see whether her product is in store and which pharmacy she can go to, and the pharmacist or the PTAs can use that.
So if there is something that is not available for the time being, they can say: "Well, I can send it home to you, or you can fetch it at the next door pharmacy." So there will be a collaboration between the different pharmacies that will improve, so that the staff members in the points of sales can also improve the convenience of the patients, of the customers. But webshops go further. It's not only about the availability of products. We will certainly offer that, no doubt. But when it comes to health questions, the webshops will be a central aspect. Apart from the knowledge about products, we also need trustworthy content. We build such content, and we also make it available in the webshops and in the internet.
And I will come back now to Mrs. Peter, the one with the red eyes, the conjunctivitis. This content regarding the causes of her red eyes will be on amavita.ch. She will be able to make an appointment there right away, and she will also see products that are recommended. And this customer journey will be seamless, and that will be possible in the future. So online, offline, we will have some collaboration potential there. These were two examples for the webshop, for the prescription manager. There are some other examples. What we want to develop, one is already working, namely, you can also make a vaccination appointment in the pharmacy. You don't have to announce it. You can do it here. You can also have an online booking.
A new tool that we have is a possibility if you have Mrs. Peter with the red eyes and the pharmacist does not know what she has, you can really book a doctor directly via a digital tool. He will be online. He can take a look at Mrs. Peter's eyes and say: "Well, such and such is my diagnosis," and the pharmacist can then hand out the, say, antibiotics. So it's, again, going back from offline to online. So, medication tool, Marc
has mentioned it, and Marc will also talk about that at a later stage again. Well, if I talk about it on the last slide, we will address the customer demands of all the customers and really be able to make the perfect fit between the on and offline world for the patient. We fight for it with the staff, who is really having fun doing what they do. They enjoy their work. That's really a simple formula, and it works for some 25 years for me already. Customers will find us in, on the internet more than in the past. They will buy services, products, and they will find the products where they need them, no matter where they are, which is also decisive.
The doctor, pharmacist, and the care staff will be combined to have a seamless journey for the patient, integrated care, no matter whether the patient is independent or is already in a care institution. We make sure that more patients come into our network and will be able to join us. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Thomas. Now we'll hear more from you later during the Q&A and the panel. Now, we'll now be talking about joint ventures, and we'll hear from Olaf Heinrich, who's with us in a digital manner. Good morning, Olaf. I'm afraid we cannot hear you yet. Please check whether you have muted yourself. Now, Olaf is the CEO of Redcare Pharmacy and joined the corporation on the first of August 2023.
Can you hear me now?
Good morning, Olaf. Where are you now?
I'm in Cologne, and I'm really happy that I can be with you today.
Excellent. So the floor goes to you.
Thank you, Tanya.
Good morning. Good morning. This is a one-stop pharmacy. That is something that we've built. We've had a very successful business, and you can see the figures here. So we've been doing that for 20 years. So we have more than 50,000 products, and we ship out. We have 80,000 personnel. So that's, of course, we have a distribution center, so we've made great progress in pharmacy. So let's turn to the next slide. And now, we're active across Europe in several countries, emphasis in Germany, Austria, and Belgium, where we're market leaders. Interesting is to mention that, OTC and BPC, and also it's especially valid in Germany.
So the entire gamut of pharmacy, so the OTC, BPC, of course, are subject to regulations in other countries. And, of course, we've just joined Switzerland through that joint venture. Now, what is important for us, we are an online pharmacy, but we try to be a lot more than just sell products over price. So we're a marketplace. We offer numerous products also of partners. So not only Rx, BPC, and OTC, but also other medications. And same-day delivery is a topic that is very close to our hearts because that's what customers want. We're familiar with that from Amazon and other providers. We have to be in a situation to provide for a good window same day.
Again, we do that in part from the Netherlands, in part together, in conjunction with partners in Germany. Now, Rx is, of course, a big topic, and everything that surrounds medication, as we've also just heard, is crucial. Now, what is also dear to our hearts is loyalty. And, RedPoints is our own loyalty program that we've rolled out across Europe, and it works really seamlessly. And, it says apps here. What we mean is the underlying technology that we use in order to be always available to the customers everywhere, at every time, to really have a customer journey that is excellent for them and make sure they come back. Here you can see the development of our active customers, and I believe it's 10 million, more than 10 million, as you can see here.
So that makes us definitely the number one healthcare platform in Europe. And if you're familiar with that a bit and know the underlying mechanics to get 10 million active customers means that you have 10 million in traffic a week. So, 10 million visitors a week to our website. So that's quite something that we've built there, I would say. And the Net Promoter Score, you can see that here, is at 71 for the first half of the year. And it's only working out if the customers are returning customers. So that's quite a crucial element, and the NPS has been measured by us for several years, and that's quite important to us to be really at the top there. So what you can see here is our half-year figures. That's the Q3.
And right now, things are really popping for us, so we're growing in the non-Rx area by +25%, in both the German-speaking regions and international. So, there's quite a handsome growth. And the important thing is not only new customers, but also repeat orders. So the customer satisfaction is there. The model is working. Now, this year, we've accordingly raised our guidance, and we're quite proud. So we opted for 10%-20% in the beginning of the year, but it turns out the growth will amount to more like 25%-30%. And the EBITDA was also raised to up to 3% in our guidance, which again proves that the model is working.
Next slide, please. Now, we are really combining the best of both worlds, as it says here. Now, MediService, of course, in Switzerland, just like Galenica, is really positioned well, does understand the market well, does understand how the market works. Of course, the markets will differ across Europe from country to country, and now we have an emphasis on Rx and a reach out on home care. So we understand truly well how to treat chronic patients, now, together with the partners, whether that be doctors or pharmacists. And we, on the other side, as I tried to show you already, we are the dynamic online platform in Europe as a partner to them.
So, we have all that experience how to be an online pharmacy, but also how to provide the technology and how to put all of that into practice. To bring all of that together, that is really a true joy for us, and I believe we can be a strong partner for you in Europe, and I'd like to pass the floor back to you.
Thank you, Olaf. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm absolutely happy to give you an update on the joint venture. Our customers profit in Switzerland from a unique offer. So we have a webshop with a broad-based product assortment when it comes to health, beauty, and care. It's not only about Swiss products, but we also have European products at attractive prices.
Now, with PharmaCare, customers will profit from the shipment of prescription medicines, services that are highly personalized, like a reminder to take your medication, renewal or prescription, and in the future also an electronic medication plan and a polymedication check. And, we have a high-quality home care services together with our doctors, the clinics and the manufacturers. So what we have on offer is individualized therapy flanking programs on several illnesses and diseases, so instructions, training, monitoring, consultation, information, and all of that at your home via the phone or video-based. We also have hybrid services that we're developing, that's app and web-based nurse programs in combination with our nurses, also for hypertension or diabetes.
We're convinced that this creates a rounded out care product to our customers, apart from taking their medication, and that will provide better therapy quality and better therapy success at the end of the day. It is our goal to empower our patients and to help them to remain independent and healthy for as long as possible, because the health of our customers, it comes first, and we give it our all. Now, since the joint venture, we are now the leading online pharmacy for prescription medicine in Switzerland, in combination with the biggest assortment for beauty and healthcare.
What we offer our customers today is a unique customer promise, and in the future, we are going to round that out with even more comprehensive services. In order to speed up growth and in order to have more synergies and be able to use them, the potential for future growth potential needs to be created, which means that we have to raise our degree of the awareness with the customers. We have to boost our assortment on the webshop, especially for Swiss project. We have to foster cross-selling and boost the customer's experience. One single sign-on and also boost in the NPS. And we do not only want to have customers, but fans.
With the new building blocks, we have on the e-commerce platform, opens up that new growth potential. My Therapy app springs to mind, or the marketplace. Now, that's same-day delivery or rush delivery or click and collect, collect. We want to be the unbeaten number one of online pharmacies in Switzerland. To boost growth, it is crucial that the context and the framework for online shipment be improved.
That's why we've focused on four individual points together with the relevant actors: OTC l iberalization first, so that shipments will be possible if you have OTC drugs, which is not the case today. Second, the e-prescription. A launch of e-prescription will boost quality, will boost patient safety, and will boost efficiency in the system. Third, the e-medication p lan. E-medication p lan will allow us to do the utmost for our patients, so that they have the pull to avoid the things that we heard before, that patients forget to take their medication, or don't remember which pill to take. And fourth, e-health. We intend to be a driver in Switzerland. We see us as a proactive player in Swiss healthcare, and we intend to make a significant contribution for overall health in Switzerland for the sake of the Swiss. Thank you.
Thank you, André. Now, joint venture and omni-channel. Let's drill down in the context of a Q&A round, and afterwards, we'll have the Q&A. Olaf, would you care to join me again on the screen, as well as Marc and Thomas, please? Please, join me.
Yeah, we have on the pure— All right, pure online and omni-channel, we've heard about that. Now, isn't that a competition that you're building or competitors? How won't they cannibalize one another?
No, well, you would subsume, but it never came to pass. When two to three years ago, we launched the programs in the omni-channel sector, we thought about: Now, how can we design that landscape in Switzerland in the future? There were several variants. One of them was obvious. Let's build our own channel. And I said, "No, let's not do that, because it's not our DNA." We didn't want to develop yet another brand. And what became clear for us, our Coop Vitality, Sun Store, and Amavita already are there, and we could build upon them and not add yet another experience. So it became quite clear that we want to do that together with a partner.
And it became quite clear, in turn, what's better to do in Switzerland, in small Switzerland, than to have a bigger partner? And Olaf explained that nicely. So the skills and competence that they have, so you directly access a different assortment, a different product range, and include that in Switzerland. And of course, that comes at the cost that you have a certain degree of competition, but that's what we wanted. It will happen online, with or without us. And so we said, "We have that, at least within our universe."
Okay, it's important for you that you have a better framework condition for shipment, so that the OTC shipment becomes liberalized. Are you ready when the OTC market takes off?
Oh, the simple answer, yes! We're ready. Everything that we're building, what I tried to describe to you, all the foundations. So, OTC medication that is easily available can be made available to the customer. And the OTC list will not come with add-on demands. We'll be ready, yes.
Now, Olaf, in Germany, you have a different situation, of course. Can you give us an idea, please?
The situation is indeed different in Germany. We have OTC shipments over years, and the market share of online pharmacies is at 25%, so that's a substantial contribution in the market. And more than two-thirds of German regularly buy online shipped OTC medication. And what you may have gathered already, it's not only a price channel. What you have to try and establish is a customer relationship, so you have return customers. And it won't work only over price. It works with convenience, it works with services. You know, so it is about shipment. So you have to build that, you have to build the relevant know-how, which takes some time.
We started out selling over price, but that's no longer the model of the day, as we just heard. It's about the holistic view that you need to have in order to build a sustainable customer model with good profitability.
Thank you. What is missing in Switzerland?
Well, legislation, really.
Legislation.
In Germany, liberalization took place as early as in 2003, and we cannot go over the counter in Switzerland like that online. And we just assume that maybe in 2027, 2028, we will have that liberalization.
But we have discussed it since 2003, right?
Yes, that is completely right.
Thomas, we've heard that you have a lot in the pipeline. What about your customers? Do they know about the digital things?
Well, on the one hand, we have the digital world that we make it available technically. With Prescription Manager, you saw the first elements that are on the market. People can try it out, but it's really a major task to market it. We have to make sure that we will be found on the internet. Everybody ask Dr. Google today, and you can ask Dr. Google for red eyes, and then you hopefully have amavita.ch and react accordingly. That's one way in which we try to acquire, acquire new customers. The other item is, and that's a major advantage, we see 100,000 customers day in, day out, and online, offline, that interplay is so important that we have some, some promotion made in the pharmacies to also accompany the patient online.
How do you make that motivation to make available that online range?
It's certainly a task. As a first step, every pharmacist, every pharmaceutical assistant asks, "Oh," is afraid, "Well, I'll lose the customer. He will never return to the pharmacies." But that's the wrong way. That's our task, to tell them it's just a support that will make sure that the customers are even more willing to come to your pharmacy. Maybe some of the tasks can be given to the digital system so that the customer has more time, that you can invest more in, counseling, and it will also increase convenience because certain aspects can be managed at home. The patient does not necessarily have to go to the pharmacy all the time, so that interplay is an advantage rather than a disadvantage. We have to tell, tell that our cus- our staff members, too.
It's part of the transformation process. Olaf, you do not really have that interplay. How did you manage from number one to position yourself as the number one online pharmacy?
Well, I've done that for 15 years, that business model of the online pharmacy. There's a lot of cooperation going on with on-site pharmacies in Germany, so the times have changed. In the past, people fought each other, really, and today it really is quite clear that the customer wants an omni-channel experience. We need to create a win-win situation also from the offer side, and my experience in the past has shown this is really possible. We just have to have a good structure and plan. We started out as online pharmacies, but now we are also focusing on rush deliveries with a partner network on site.
So pick up and collect, for instance, that people make orders and they pick up the medication in the local pharmacies. These are models that the patients want to have now, and we have to find partners. And my experience has shown that this functions well, and everybody is open for such paths.
Thank you. And now we come to your questions, and there are quite a number of them, I think. And also, via webcast, you can submit your questions in writing and, or ask them directly.
A question to the digital services that you are developing, to what degree will they be shared with a joint venture? And the Galenica channels, how will they be developed?
It's really a case-by-case approach. The digital, products on our part, the joint venture, André mentioned the prescription manager or the medication tools, tools that really can be used by both. It's always a question of the discussion: Where do we go? Marc said, yes, maybe we are competitors at times, but the major advantage is exactly that. We can jointly use what we jointly develop. Where it makes sense, we will also find a way to make joint use of such channels.
There's another question over here. Microphone. Please wait for the microphone.
Maja Pataki, Kepler Cheuvreux. Two questions. You make a lot of efforts in the area of digital platforms, services that you offer, but that also makes for a more complex end-user experience for them to get around that situation.
To what degree do you try to collaborate with the health insurers to go via one platform, the health insurance platform, to integrate it directly so that you are passed on, really? That's my first question. And the second question, the incentives for the pharmacists to offer digital services. There are some Amavita pharmacies around my work site. I regularly go there, and never have I been offered to do it, to go via digital offers. Is there a bonus system where you promote that, or how do you do it?
Maybe to the second question. We do not have a bonus system. We don't want that either. It's not really that great a service that we can offer. It's just a journey that we started. We really want to focus on the customer use and transparency information via the system, that in the end, the pharmacy's sales can be increased that way, and other retailers have done this so too. We will certainly find ways and means to do that. It's a way I know about other experiences.
If you talk to the retailers on site and tell them, "You have to make available some digital service," they need a lot of discussions first, and a lot of information has to be passed on first. Now, as to the first point, if it's too complex for the customer, then we have not dealt with it correctly. I think omni-channel means, of course, certain complexity. That is really one of the aspects. We want to make sure that we have an easy access for the customer.
In future, there will be several choices, different entry choices or channels for one service, and customers want to have the different channels and want to be present. That's where we have a JV. We have different platforms. We are integrated, and we construct a journey for the customers for the different health insurers by CSS or Helsana, by Benecura, or we also focus on Benecura. They, you know, other health insurers also have access to our entry portals. And our approach is we are Galenica, we are the market leader, and we really want to bring as many people as possible to our universe.
Thank you. Good morning, Urs Kunz. So, the web shops and web joint ventures, you sell in your own web shops. Is that the price, the pricing, is that the same in web shops and in the pharmacies and then the e-prescriptions? It's a little complicated in your web shop. Chronic diseases, they really go via MediService. Will that be passed on to MediService in future, too? Is that the recommendation in the pharmacies that you buy via MediService? And regarding that e-prescription, Rx, the small Rx's, will they be located with Amavita? And what about chronic diseases, do they go via the joint venture then?
Well, I can answer that question. Yes. Yes, price point. When it's amavita.ch, it will have the same price in a on-site pharmacy as well as on a, an internet online player. It's difficult otherwise.
Olaf said it's really not to our primary goal to really go via the price, but it's one of the nature. The Rx's MediService focuses primarily on high price products, chronic disease. So packages as of CHF 2,750- something. So high price will be remaining with MediService. That's our goal, really. But the other item, the minor Rx products, so the permanent prescriptions against high blood blood pressure, for instance, these three quarter— that's three quarters of our overall turnover. It's maybe not so much money regarding the individual prescription, but we will have some competition there. We want to have focus focus on Amavita, and we want to really have that competition going for in our direction.
Olaf, you are nodding. Would you like to add something? Yeah.
Can you hear me? I was kicked out of the system. Maybe to supplement the information, the experiences we have is the OTC prices. With the partner pharmacies in Germany, they determine their own prices, so there is an online price. Online price is lower than the on-site price. If you want to pick it up online, if you want to pick it up, there's a difference in pricing there, which is justified because there's also another service involved. And of course, in both channels, we will try to fight for our valuable customers, but that's the setup of the joint venture. We can probably manage to do it, so I don't really see it as a competition, but rather as an enrichment with that online market. We will manage it. It also functions in other markets.
I think the cake is big enough. We will not mutually eat us up. I think we can be mutually enriching, and that's the game, aim, really.
Question to Rx in Switzerland. In Germany, Rx has a price setting. There are some discussions in Switzerland. Can you imagine in that joint venture, there are no big margins, but when it comes to Rx, that you can make some, you know, leeway for pricing to retain customers?
Who wants to answer that question?
Yes, I can say something about that. Experience in Germany has shown it's right, we have a fixed pricing system. But there's also the Netherlands, for instance, and there are European price advantages that can we can benefit from. Price is not everything.
When it comes to chronic diseases, it really is important to have a good care service. When it comes to new customers, of course, you can win new customers via pricing, but if the shipment is good, if the availability is good, if the service is good, then there is high customer retention without price binding. I'm not really operative in that, joint venture, but I think pricing can be one element, but let's not only focus on prices. That's just one element. That's my experience that I have had in Germany for the past 15 years, or from the past 15 years.
Okay, I think we're done time-wise, really. Another question? Yeah. There are more questions, but maybe we can end here, and you can ask the question directly over the coffee break. Thank you, Thomas, Olaf, and Marc, for the time being.
Yeah, we have talked a lot about the virtual aspect. Now we want to have something physical. We have some market stalls here. What we can hear about the market stalls will be now presented by the representatives. ...
Genau, wir machen jetzt sehr gerne die Verbindung zur Praxis im Alltag. Stellen Sie sich vor, die Bindehautentzündung von Frau Peter oder der eventuelle Harnwegsinfekt von Frau Dubois, die haben sich ganz oft nicht an die Öffnungszeiten der Hausärzte. Oder es gibt viele Themen, mit denen sich Personen nicht zum Arzt getrauen, obwohl sie sehr belastet sind. Im Rahmen der neuen Regulierung der Kompetenzen der Leistungserbringer im Bereich der Gesundheitsversorgung dürfen Apotheken viele Medikamente abgeben heute, die eigentlich nur unter Verschreibung sind. Die Formulierung ist etwas sperrig, aber der Spielraum deutlich vergrößert wurde.
Und auch noch viel wichtiger: Wir beraten und betreuen die Kunden und Kundinnen umfassend und können Ihnen so auch von Samstag um 3:00 P.M. mit Ihren Problemen weiterhelfen. Das erlaubt auch, dass die Kompetenzen der beiden Apotheken in den Fachapotheken zu nutzen, um die Grundversorgung zu stärken.
Roughly 50% of our 120,000 customers will make use of the service or used it last year, and they really did so around the fringes or on weekends, and often at a lower price than had they gone to a hospital. We are so happy to talk about these services in greater detail, practically speaking, together with Yves Plattel, my colleague, the colleague of the Amavita Bahnhof Apotheke in Zürich. That is to say, the biggest pharmacy in Switzerland. Ladies and gentlemen, what can be expected at our stall?
Fear, tears, and, well, vaccination takes a little bit of a syringe injection. What about your vaccination status and the information via the electronic health? We have asked you in the invitation to bring along your vaccination booklet. If you've done that, we can really make a vac check and see whether there are some gaps in your vaccinations and whether we can recommend some vaccinations. A few courageous candidates have already announced that they would like to have a vaccination, and I'm very happy to hear that some of them will also be spontaneous, willing people to be vaccinated. My colleague Julia will see to it that it's not too hurtful. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to invite you to turn to our markets, digital health. We've heard quite a lot about digital health, and we saw that it's quite central to the future of Galenica. Because, apart from the brick-and-mortar stores, we want to contact customers also digitally, and we'd like to accompany them and care for them. And Markus has said it, the digital ecosystems are important in that context, together with telemedicine, clinics, doctors, but also health insurance. Now, Galenica has therefore decided to join up with two relevant digital health platforms, Well and Benecura. With our commitment to these platforms, we basically have three goals.
First, we want to make sure that there is a strategic positioning of Galenica in the healthcare system, and we want to actively shape these networks. Second, we want to secure the access to our existing customers and address new customers, young customers. And third, of course, our spectrum that we have on offer, medication, health services, all of that, will be integrated onto the platforms and also into the health insurers' models. So if you're interested in hearing more about our activities in digital health, we'd be happy to discuss the future together with you at our booth.
Understanding healthcare. Now, healthcare is next, and we'll offer to you what we have on offer when it comes to B2B, that is, clinics and care homes. So it's not only about individual performance, but it's about the overall package that we have. So the marketing operations is going to take care of that flanked out by MediService with a coordination service. Now, the digital platform of Lifestage Solutions is a central element to offer one-stop-shop to our B2B customers. Medifilm will show how medication is blistered that will boost B2B customers efficiency and will provide for more patient safety. Emeda can close important gaps through its mobile GPs when it comes to taking care of patients and helping B2B customers where there might be gaps. And Bichsel will show you in artificial nutrition how to provide from the transition from stationary to inpatient care... to boost quality of life.
Thank you so much. That sounds all so exciting, and I didn't bring my vax pass, which is a shame. So I hope you did better than I have. To ensure the market to boost, we now have a break of 45 minutes, and then we'll continue. Thank you, and see you later.
Liebe Gäste, das Programm geht gleich weiter. Dürfen wir Sie zurück an Ihren Platz bitten? Danke! ... Liebe Gäste, das Programm geht gleich weiter. Dürfen wir Sie zurück an Ihren Platz bitten? Danke!
Ja, willkommen zurück! Welcome back, everyone. I hope you at home or at the office had a good break. Now, here around the room, I could see people exchange opinions. So we have a lunch break, too, in order to enable you to talk to one another again and to check out the info booths. Now, increasing health care costs, that's what we're talking about, these days, and an ever-aging population. So what does Galenica do to counter that? Now, we'll now hear from Daniele Madonna on that.
About a month ago, a drastic increase of healthcare contribution was announced, and that showed once again that healthcare costs are massively on the rise. Add to that an ever fiercer shortage of medical doctors and an ever-aging population. That means that the number of over eighty years old will more than double by 2050 in Switzerland, and end up at 1.1 million people in total. So these are important reasons to talk about alternatives in healthcare. For us, as Galenica, it's a clear-cut mandate to continue our work, to turn pharmacies into the port of call when it comes to health questions, and to also invest in home care. How we do that, I'd like to explain to you in the coming minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, buongiorno.
The developments that I've mentioned really are at the heart of our credo. We care, and we care where our patients are. That is, where our services of prevention, of acute care, of home care, and chronic diseases, or in old age care, will offer an added value to them. With our services that we offer in the pharmacies, we make a societal contribution to make sure that healthcare in Switzerland improves. We have attractive prices for our services, and that means that costs are stabilized in healthcare in Switzerland. And politicians have underlined that because the National Council, at the end of September, agreed to review the sections 25 and 26 of the Healthcare Act. And we're always in close proximity, and we're there until late in the evening and on the weekends.
We are there to put our skills at the service of our customers, and therefore, I believe, that will have an ever more important role to play in care for our patients. Now, healthcare services and counseling in a pharmacy have a lot of advantages. We're easy to access, we provide high-quality services, and quite often, we are the most cost-efficient solution. And that is why we continue to broaden our advice and counseling in pharmacies, and we check new offers constantly. We carry out innovative pilot projects, we enter into cooperations with partners, and enable our personnel to offer medication as well as healthcare services, which is a meaningful combination. And that is our contribution to position pharmacies as the port of call for healthcare questions in the Swiss market.
Now, let me give you an example of healthcare services where pharmacies have gained a foothold, namely vaccinations, mainly against the flu and FSME, that is ticks. In 2022, in our 300 pharmacies who offer vaccination service, we carried out 22,600 flu shots and 14,000 FSME shots. And we intend to offer more vaccinations in the context of what is possible under regulatory schemes. Why am I talking about that? Now, the vaccine authorizations differ from canton to canton, and that really sometimes slows us down in our energetic approach. Today, for instance, there are just five cantons where all the vaccinations have been authorized in accordance with the Swiss vaccination plan.
Step by step, and together with the Swiss pharmacy a ssociation, pharma Suisse, we're trying to change that, and we're checking out three new vaccinations for our pharmacies. So herpes zoster, that's shingles, whooping cough, and pneumococci. It's not only about vaccinations, though. It's also about talking to patients, counseling patients, and that is met with the customers, the need customers have. Compared to the first half of 2022, the number of billable service consultations in the pharmacies was boosted by 34% to 70,200, which is an excellent development, but there is more potential harbored in that, and we intend to tap that. We intend to tap it by continuing to invest in the expert training of our staff and in digitization of day-to-day dealings at the pharmacy.
Now, we have consultation discussions right now for 31 acute complaints. We have algorithms, the morning after pill springs to mind, eye infections or UTIs. That those are the most frequent ones. Let me give you a specific example. Just imagine your 18-year-old daughter just moved to a new city to go to university there, and she complains that, when passing water, she's in severe pain. She doesn't yet have a GP in the new place, but it's good to know that she can turn to one of our pharmacies to be treated. The customer journey for your daughter, it's easy. The patient comes to the pharmacy, we open up a customer file, we talk to her, and we check her urine. Afterwards, we recommend a therapy, and we'll document the entire consultation.
That therapy could also involve handing over a prescription medication that we can dispense without having to consult a medical doctor. The advantages for the patient are quite obvious: so easy to access, close, closeness, proximity, and a cost-efficient solution. As Marc said in the beginning, that treatment in a pharmacy is a lot more inexpensive than if you turn to your GP. This type of consultation talks and this type of complaints that patients have, of course, tend to be sensitive, and people tend to be embarrassed. I notice that myself, I'm a pharmacist, when talking to customers. That's why, Amavita Zollikofen often is testing a new concept. We call it Beratung plus, Consultation Plus.
We have a newly drawn up room, a separate room where we talk, and we've checked that out with existing customers, so it's quite a good solution, we feel. So you can see here in the picture, this is a separate room with a separate checkout counter in order to have an even more discreet customer journey. So the segment, healthcare insurance, health insurance, is something that we're working on quite intensively, too. More and more health insurers are interested, interested in integrating the services of our pharmacy in their insurance model, so they reimburse our services and create an easy-to-access consultations for patients. But the road ahead is long, until we'll have established that offer everywhere, but we believe it is absolutely promising. Another important target group, as I've mentioned before, is the aging population that we have.
By 2050, we expect over 80s in Switzerland to double in numbers. So that means more and more patients will have to be taking care of at home or in care homes, so they cannot turn to the pharmacy themselves. Others will determine where the medication will be bought. And by 2030, we expect 230,000 Spitex and 105,000 patients in old age or care homes. And the majority of these patients require medication, care, materials, or products of clinical nutrition. So we estimate that to amount to about CHF 3,500 per person a year. So that is a market where we estimate that it's in the billions of Swiss Francs today.
And let me hasten to add that there are no market data available yet, and our market share, we estimate to be at around 10% today. So there is a clear potential for growth in that area, and we intend to tap into that in the coming years. For that segment, care homes and Spitex, we are developing add-on approaches. You will have seen it in the info booth. So the entire product range of Galenica will be also transposed onto a digital platform. And Life stage platform is an ideal one because it's been supporting care personnel for years, quite successfully so. How? The disruptive and intuitive app simplifies and digitize a lot of administrative processes, so the carers can really dedicate themselves fully to the patients. And we also opt, quite clearly so, for cross-selling.
That is why in the Lifestage platforms, we'll step by step integrate all the relevant offers from the Galenica network, such as medication or blistering. That means, for the customers, that is the care home or Spitex, that they all have access to all the relevant products or services with just one app. So you can see, as the number one in this segment, we are getting step by step closer to our promise to accompany our customers throughout their lives as optimally as possible, independent of what kind of phase that they're in, in their lives or in their health status. So our offer, products, and services is supposed to be comprehensive, and that's why we really follow all the latest in developments in society and in healthcare.
We anticipate things, and we work out new approaches to consolidate our strong market position and to further grow. Thank you.
Grazie mille, Daniele. Grazie mille. And we'll see you later, Daniele, here on stage, and then we'll, you have the opportunity to ask questions. Servant leadership, that was mentioned by Marc, and we'll have a look at what that is all about.
Under servant leadership, verstehe ich, dass man, mehr miteinander ist. Servant leadership pour moi, c’est faire confiance. Vertrauen, Selbstentscheidung. Weniger von oben herab. Plus de responsabilité. Le responsable délègue des rôles. Team player.
Voilà, qu'on arrive tous ensemble à atteindre nos objectifs. Et puis, ces rôles sont assumés par la personne de façon autonome et sous son entière responsabilité. Servant leadership ist auch zusammen Spaß haben. Zusammen, das Ziel erreichen. Donc, ça donne une bonne cohésion au sein de l'équipe. It creates enormous cohesion within the team.
Ja, und nun darf ich Virginie Pache auf der Bühne begrüßen. Sie ist Leitung Pharma bei Galenica Schweiz. So, Virginie, auf den Film kommen wir gleich zu sprechen, doch zuerst möchte ich auf die Referate von Daniele, Thomas und die Pitches zurückkommen. Wir haben sehr viel gehört von den Pitches der Zukunft, was alles sehr ambitioniert klingt. Wer und wie wird das Ganze umsetzen?
Who will be the one who implemented it?
Die gesamte Gruppe verpflichtet, oder-
Of course, that's a task for the entire group.
Die mehr als 5,000 Personen-
More than 5,000 staff members in the pharmacies themselves.
Sie müssen das so verstehen, es ist nicht nur ein Mehrwert für den Kunden-
Please beware, it's not only a value add for the customer—
Es ist auch ein Mehrwert für Mitarbeiter-
—also for the staff members
Es ist eine Aufwertung ihres Job. Ich sag auch immer,
Appreciation of the job.
Ich bin die einzige Retailerin-
I'm the only retailer—
Unabschluss einstellen
—who employs people with a university degree. That's what I like to say. They can make use of their assets. They are well-trained, and they are—
Sprich, solche Projekte sind ganz klar-
— educated all the time. Such projects are really a motivational force for us.
Die Fachkräftemangel.
These skilled workers are lacking. That's something that we often see in the Euro branch.
Also benötigen sie auch diese-
Do you have sufficient staff members to meet the challenges of those ambitious plans?
Ja. Well, it's a challenge. The situation is quite tense. It's not a lie. That will also remain the fact in the future. We see overall pharmacy systems in Switzerland, we say that 1/4 of the pharmacists will, in the coming 10 years, retire or reach retirement age. That's to say, the situation, for demographic reasons, will remain very tense. It is quite, quite clear the goal is to present ourselves and position ourselves as an attractive employer. We want to retain our staff, we want to recruit new people, and in order to do so, we also have to work in the field of productivity. What do I mean? We have to simplify processes. We have to generate time for the front staff so that their important and value-added tasks, like counseling, can be dealt with by them.
We come back to the video. We heard about your attractiveness as an employer. The values that were mentioned, do they play a role when it comes to the attractiveness?
Yes, I am more than convinced thereof. I live for that transformational path that we started with our staff members. Attractiveness does not only mean wages. No, we also have to be innovative when it comes to the way in which we work and to be a firm that people love to work for. For me, in the first place, I think we need to promote entrepreneurial ways of working. That's to say, we focus on people with a university degree who love to work in their field and be in a leadership position in their company, and we also have to have that meaningfulness in the back of our minds.
I think these are the two success factors for me, that in our leadership team give us the well advantage, the competitive advantage. Those who come from medical field, well, it's usually a very classical structure, and there's not a lot of perspectives for people who come here and who are not right away the boss. By the entrepreneurial way of thinking, we found that we have to seize the one of the strategic goals, the number of POS. We really channeled them together and streamlined them. It's a question of best practice exchange, but not only. It's a way in which we better mutualize resources and make planning easier. That is one point.
When it comes to meaningful approaches, the role model that we've seen, people who come to join us can take on the role, like personnel planning, for instance. That's also an efficiency means or taking care of apprentices. So this is also an important role. It doesn't only focus on monetary aspects, but also the joy of working and the joy of being efficient. That's also something that we focus on. There are a lot of people who are not pharmacists, but PTAs, and who, in the end, lead a pharmacy.
Well, you mentioned the term leadership, like Marc also, and we heard it in the video, too. This sounds like wealth, well-being, and an oasis.
Well, unfortunately, this is not always fair weather sailing.
We, on the part of the management, we have the task of creating a culture where the staff members want to give their best and make a major contribution to the sales and the results. We have goals. We are ambitious. However, the culture also makes it possible to start new projects, to introduce new ideas. We are quicker. For instance, a project in supply chain management, we work together with several pilot pharmacies, pharmacies where we ask about all the processes, Logistics & IT internally are managed within Galenica, so the processes can be scrutinized in a better way, or we have the right people that we can address to improve matters. So with servant leadership, of course, we can manage costs, the cost aspect, but we also have a strategic advantage, a competitive advantage, to retain people and to bring them to join us.
This kind of leadership, does it have a bearing on the staff satisfaction?
Yes, we can say so. First of all, one year ago, the management decided to focus on that Net Promoter Score. That is to say, would you say that it is a good idea to work for Galenica? That's an important KPI. In the last two measurements of that value, they asked people from universities to join us, and we wanted to see what about their willingness to be retained. We want to make sure they stay with us. Well, customer and sales turnover, that's something that we've heard about. Well, we've heard motivated staff members also are. That's enthusiasm that is passed on to the customer. That's a really virtuous circle rather than a vicious circle.
So that's an enthusiasm that has to be, transposed. Transformation in itself is not a matter, for itself. It's not just because we think it's a good idea. No, it is also about a value added. Customer satisfaction is the guarantee to see to it that tomorrow, too, we will prevail. The customer is at the center of all our decisions.
You say center of the decisions, so customer satisfaction is number one within Galenica. How about your possibility to increase that?
The Net Promoter Score, the NPS, is certainly one of the major KPIs for the overall group. It's a major journey. It's not only the front people who are at the forefront, but the entire company who is at stake here. It's one way. No matter what you do within Galenica, in controlling, I also make a contribution to the satisfaction of the customer.
For the pharmacy, we gave it a face, the Big Smile Program, as we call it. It's based upon on empathy, on customer enthusiasm. We always tend to say we don't want the customer to just pass by a, pharmacy and go in, but that they really intentionally go and join us in Galenica. I explained it, it's not only about, being the biggest chain pharmacy, but the best one, the most favored one, the most popular one, and that is also carried by all the branches. We make that visible so that there's some sort of pressure to, also make results.
So to gain market share?
Yes. Yes, of course. We want to see to organic growth. I think that is the goal of every, company with products and services, as has been said during the morning session.
We want to make sure that we go the extra mile, that the customer receives the best counseling ever, and that's really important to us. This year and yet next year, too, we also want to improve the net. We want to acquire, integrate, or open. That's just part of the deal.
Thank you for that. And Daniele Madonna, you can come back to the stage so that we can have a panel discussion. And of course, you will have the opportunity to ask questions afterwards. Well, at the beginning, when we started with the event, we heard by the colleague from the NZZ, from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, he asked whether the pharmacist will become sort of a supplementary doctor. You want to play an important role for the health of people, but do you want to be a doctor?
No. I, as a pharmacist, don't want to be a doctor. We cannot be that. We are pharmacists. Pharmacists have a five-year university degree and graduated from it, and during our training, we are trained as a pharmacist to do the triage per process. We learn to what degree we can go with our competencies. And we know if there is something that is asked too much from us, and if that is the case, the customer becomes a patient for a doctor. So we want to be sort of complementary with doctors and create a value added for the entire health system.
That's quite clear. At the same time, we also have to break that pattern. And we are very happy that we work together with the Association of the Doctors, and that you also have a seat in pharmaSuisse. It's Swiss, too, you know, have an interdisciplinary approach.
I think what is also important for us is that we try and work together as a team in an integrated way. Thomas mentioned that in his presentation. I think that's very important during counseling. Maybe there's a conjunctivitis that we can treat in the pharmacy from start to finish. We can really pass on the medication or make the prescription, but maybe there are cases where there are more complications, and the pharmacist knows, "Well, I need the help of a real doctor. I need a medical consultation." And in this case, we can address that partner, Book a Doc, it's called, and we can combine that together and have a good treatment for the patient.
You talked about the vaccination plan that you had. That sounds good. You want to vaccinate more. Now, in five cantons in Switzerland, at the moment, this is possible, according to the Swiss legislation, that you do the vaccinations. What about doing it in all cantons? What do you do for that?
Well, we closely collaborate with the pharmaSuisse, pharmacists a ssociation, so that on a political scale, we can get things moving. A first success is that authorization from the National Council to revise sections 25 and 26 of the Healthcare Act. I've said that earlier, those authorizations for vaccinations are issued by the Departments of Health in the different cantons. So this work will have to be dealt with on a cantonal and on a local level. Our contribution is together with the cantonal associations of pharmacies.
We collaborate and see how can we make sure that in these cantons, we can make sure that the health department allows for such vaccination measures to be taken in the pharmacies. COVID helped us to open some of the doors, but will take some more years, but we'll certainly make some headway in that field, too.
So we've heard some indications, what you want to do, what you want to do more. Vaccination is one topic. Does that suffice to reach your goals, your dreams, your wishes?
No, of course not. Vaccination themselves alone will not suffice, but that's a major service to get our foot in. It's a service that the broad majority of the population understands well, and our goal must be to make sure that the population is such that if I go on, on a trip, and if there is a flu, vaccination or a, anti-tick and FSME, vaccination to be done, that I can go to a pharmacy rather than to go to the doctor. That's a work that we, together with the colleagues in the pharmacies, in marketing, will, be focused on. That's the first aspect.
And there are other services, too, in the area of prevention, heart checks, diabetes checks, and the personnel, the staff in the pharmacies are asked regarding the risk assessments when it comes to triage. We want to really make sure that risk patients are detected at an early stage.
We can treat certain aspects, but in other areas, we will have to say to the patient: "You, you have other factors that need to be considered. You need to go to the doctor." Another good example for services that in the beginning was only available to pharmacies and now is also available to other personnel, it's really important that we make available counseling that the entire staff can also support.
Yes. In part, that already answers my question. The premiums for health insurance, they rise in 2024. There's a lot of talk about that in politics and the media. Could you elaborate on that? What kind of contribution do you make to reduce health costs?
There are three points in my preventions aspect. First of all, prevention. We can see to it that people keep on being healthy.
Second, that overall treatment of cases that are within our realm, really, without talking about emergency situations, that is to say, where we can treat people directly, that's been said. And thirdly, the promotion of generic medications, that's to say, substitution medications.
For Switzerland, that really means a major contribution to reducing costs. As to the last point, that's something that we've done for quite some years now in, within Galenica. We have to inform the personnel, the staff in the pharmacies, and they have to pass on that information to the patients. What are the advantages of generic medications? They can also calm down people, because sometimes there are insecurities, uncertainties, less and less so, but that's thanks to the staff information being passed on to the patients.
That's really important, and these are three examples where we really make a major contribution to stabilizing health costs in Switzerland.
You've mentioned the aging of the population, how you want to, you know, focus on home care and elderly care in elderly homes, homes for the elderly. How do you differentiate yourselves from the competitors?
The platform that you mentioned is the Lifestage platform, that you've seen Lifestage. There's also an app. That simplifies the life for the caregivers. They really are de-burdened from administrative workloads. If I'm a caregiver, if I'm a nurse, and if I'm at home with a patient, and via the app I can order materials that is automatically supplied and invoice billed, I don't have to write it all down on paper. I can enter it in the system and bill it anew. So it's really easier. So we offer them time for that personnel, so that they can invest time with the patient. We differentiate here ourselves from the competitors. It's an intuitive app, and the opportunity that we have in Galenica with our network is to focus on the different offers of the different firms that you see here.
They are all put together on this platform solutions and when it comes to medication, to blistering, solutions when it comes to products, services, regarding the clinical nourishment and so forth. All these elements are brought together on that platform, and that's what differentiates us from the others.
Thank you. I think I would like to open the round for questions at home and via live stream if you want to. Of course, you can also ask questions regarding the information booths that we had. There are two questions, maybe over there.
Patrick Hasenböhler.
Patrick Hasenböhler. I have a question, it's quite probably a marginal one today. Now, which part of the service margin to the gross turnover?
As opposed to 10 years ago, I can tell you that the sales per se are not as really mentionable these yet. But we have seen strong growth, and we're building on that. What we are seeing is that with that easy-to-access services, we manage to bind customers and retain them, bind them to the pharmacy. So people come to the pharmacy where we perform our services, and we sell products at the same time, and that's the major contribution to growth.
That's the contribution of those two factors. And the other exciting thing is, it's a transformation from the product towards the services. The young generations who just graduated, they are absolutely persistent when it comes to tackling that, and that will help us.
Still, can you give me an order of magnitude, 10% something, where you hit it?
We do not simply communicate that. Now Felix is taking the stage.
So to give you a figure, we have a very low single-digit percentage of the overall sales. Now, how far we can take things, we will see. But as Daniele just said, a lot of it is add-on sales generated by that. And that creates a lot more sales than simply having a look at the sales generated by service. Well, that's what you're talking about, aren't you?
Yes, just to make that very clear, let's stick to UTIs. If you go to a medical doctor or your daughter goes to a medical doctor, then that's where the sales is, and they might also dispense the products to go with it, the pills to go with it. But if they turn to us, that's what we're trying to build on.
Thank you. Next, please.
Now, you mentioned about the shortage of labor, and you said, in the coming 10 years, 25% of pharmacists will retire. What are you doing specifically so that things will not have to be done by humans? Will there be a self-checkout button with OTCs, or what are your plans to tackle said shortage of personnel?
There are several things that we're doing. The recruiting measures and, you know, the training and further education of young pharmacists, that's quite a big deal, and optimizing processes and handling the products per se, handling the goods, that will save us a lot of time in terms of how often you have to pick up a product until it reaches the end customer. So that's an important point. Then self-checkout is another thing that we're working on, and we'll see which kind of POS needs what, and what kind—what we can do within our legal context. So we're working on that. Plus, I believe there's a third variant or something that we're working on is we don't have to have technical experts. Well, we don't need them.
Say, background activities that somebody else can do who's not a pharmacist, and that's important, too. And it's just crucial to open up prospects for people so that they remain in the healthcare sector, no? So, that they love the job.
And to follow up on that, if you remain in the service sector, that does not mean that all the services we have on offer need to be done by a pharmacist necessarily. So that's where we're trying to also integrate the assistants as far as possible, so that they may prepare things, say, and then the pharmacist may come in when needed. That's one topic. And when talking about consultations, I mentioned those algorithms, the guidelines that we need to for our documentation also. That's where our colleagues from HCI have a look at how to simplify an algorithm so that those processes get simplified or even automated. That's what I meant when I said automation. So that that takes the burden off the shoulder of the pharmacy.
An add-on question, if I may: How high is the share of the medication that are being passed out by medical doctors?
So self-dispensing medical doctors, it's about 25% of the total pharmaceutical market. 25%, another 25% goes to hospitals, and 50% is the pharmacy, but that's a rough figure, mind you.
All right. Yes, please.
I'm a bit skeptical when you're saying that you may come to replace GPs. A pharmaceutical professor in Basel told me recently that he's a bit worried that a lot of his students, mostly female students, will then go on to work in the pharmaceutical industry. Of course, it's not necessarily true for Galenica, but the pharmaceutical industry pays them better. They don't have to work weekends. Part-time work is possible. So there are several reasons why young pharmacy students or pharmaceutical students turn to the industry. Are you aware of that, and what are you doing to counter that? Because at the end of the day, you need a pharmacist in the store at all times. Wouldn't you have to raise wages significantly?
I read a study, a ZHAW S tudy, the other day, that the wages are quite low in comparison. So is there pressure on you? Well, for quite a few years, we've been working on the salaries of pharmacists, so that's a topic that's quite topical for us, you know. So we have assistants and pharmacists, mind you, and there was quite a demand to really increase wages. And of course, there are cantonal guidelines, in the meantime, for the assistants and for pharmacists. It's in line with the market, the university graduates' salaries. So that's a different kind of pressure. And we have to point out what the advantages of the profession is.
So, what the limits are and what they can do, and, of course, you have the years as assistants, then, the specialist training, and so on and so forth, and it has to be worth their while. Yes, we have a high number of women, but the advantages is, for us, is that you can work modularly, so, you can reduce your working hours, if you have a family and then go up to a full position again, and that's... So it's still going to be a fulfilling career, and you'll always have work. But yes, we have competitors in Switzerland, which is the pharmaceutical industry, but that is nothing new.
Just to follow up on that, when we talk to young students in the trade, they tell us, "Yes, we get certain degrees of skills as pharmacies, pharmacists." And when they see that the skills can be exercised within a pharmacy, so that means we're boosting the attractiveness of pharmacies, and we can see that with our young colleagues. So, Galenica is quite attractive to young people.
Then we have another question in the front, please.
I have a question on the remuneration of the consulting services and the cooperation with health insurers. You mentioned that they were gonna take over the things and remunerate you accordingly. Are you doing that with all health insurers? Because I think that needs an amendment of legislation, doesn't it?
Now, the services that we have been developing mean that the customers pay for them now. Once they've been implemented, we talk to health insurance, and they are interested to integrate that services. If we talk about basic insurance to integrate that into alternative insurance, Groupe Mutuel, where we have the product PrimaFlex. And the patients or customers who are part of that model, they can choose whether they are using telemedicine, the pharmacy or the GP.
So that is really our port of entry, and for if many customers decide in favor of the models, it's easiest for them to go to the pharmacy. And, of course, that's where our consultation services spring into mind. We do that for everybody, but of course, they will—that will be paid for by health insurance. So that's the basic thing. And, then, in order to make sure that a product be integrated into an alternative healthcare model, so that's not for the health insurance to decide. So that needs to go with the BAG, with the Ministry of Health, one year in advance, and they decide yes or no, and then the model will be carried out or not.
Accordingly, this year, for instance, Assura launched Preventa, their new model, and we're part of that with our services. But yes, we're talking to health insurance and make sure that these models spring to life. If that's not possible, there are add-on insurances, and that's where it gets a bit easier because the health insurers decide for themselves whether to include certain services or not, and our goal is quite clear: we want to talk to all health insurers.
And how about the influence of the legislative change so that ...
Well, that would be, yes, the first step with the sections 25 and 26 of the Healthcare Act. If they be revised, the pharmacists will be able to perform certain services, and then that will be taken care of by the obligatory health insurance plan. Now, today, if the pharmacist vaccinates the patients, the patient will have to pay for themselves, which is possible with an add-on insurance. But of course, the target is that we get that into basic healthcare as part of basic healthcare, and also colon cancer prevention and what have you.
So, is there another question? Nope. Yes. A quick one, please. Make it brief.
Just a quick question, really. Now, the number of pharmacies you mentioned, more than 300 will offer vaccinations. How about other services that you mentioned before?
Checkups that you called it, yeah, heart, diabetes. So that's an easy-to-access service that we will launch in all pharmacies. So the consultation plus that I mentioned, that's where the pharmacists have been empowered. The older ones, of course, have their passport to go with it, and the younger graduates, they already covered that during their course of studies. So that also can be offered across the board.
All right, we're very much on time. Thank you so much, Virginie and Daniele, and thank you to... Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the interesting discussion. Don't know how you feel about things, but I'm a bit hungry. I'm a bit peckish. So we'll now have a lunch break, and we'll continue in the afternoon, with Logistics & IT. You mentioned them already, and then what is most important to you, that's the figures. So enjoy your lunch break. Also, to all of you back home, we'll continue at 1:45 P.M.
Liebe Gäste, das Programm geht gleich weiter. Dürfen wir Sie zurück an Ihren Platz bitten? Danke!
Liebe Gäste, das Programm geht gleich weiter. Dürfen wir Sie zurück an Ihren Platz bitten? Danke!
Ja, willkommen zurück, damit zum letzten Block des Galenica Investors Day, am Investors Day. To all those who are online live, please, you have the opportunity to submit your questions via an e-tool. On the left-hand side, you can enter your questions via text Q&A or on the screen. If you want to join us here on screen, you can also have a video Q&A, or you can switch off the camera if you just want to ask your question verbally. We would be so happy to hear about you. All of those who are here in the room, of course, were able to ask questions over the lunch break. I'm really curious to see whether you made use of the information booth. So who was able to digitize the vaccination booklet?
Some of them had brought it along, and please raise your hands if you had a vaccination, if you had a shot today. I heard that there was a major demand. Applause to all of you who did the shots there. I heard that there was a major demand for those flu shots, so you have the opportunity, if you want to, after the event, to get your vaccine. Now, before we continue, I would like to hear from you what you remember from this morning's session. So this is why we have a Slido interaction. Please scan that QR code also back at home, and just enter two or three words what you remember from this morning's session. Just to remind us of what happened this morning. Just a few keywords, one or two. Six participants, no, nine already are writing something.
Omni-channel. So omni-channel, innovation, growth, digitization, innovation, omni-channel, digitization, and omni-channel. So three times innovation already. So innovation is getting bigger and bigger. Innovation play a role. Primary care. Galenica would like to focus on that more. Vaccination activities, lack of expert, skilled trainers, experts, digitization, digital health care ecosystem. Journey, home care, vaccination.
So innovation seems to be the key word and digital aspects, omni-channel, digitization, online pharmacy, Redcare, of course, the Redcare Pharmacy, the joint venture that Galenica entered into, the expansion of the portfolio, dealing on managing the lack of personnel, service, services, OTC liberalization. So that's really great and already the summary of what happened this morning, so thank you for that. So let's come to the topics that we wanted to focus on this afternoon. So what about it? Digitization and medication, how do we make sure that this gets more safe and more efficient? And I pass the floor to Lukas Ackermann. He is responsible for IT and digital services within Galenica. Welcome on behalf of IT and digital services.
Now, when you ask the question: do you know somebody personally who has several ailments, who is treated by several medical doctors, and who really takes a medication cocktail from time to time? The probability is such that you answer, "Yes, I know such a person." We've heard it this morning also in the presentations. There is that tendency, more age means that such constellations are more often there. Apart from the positive consequences on the health for such medications, we also know about problems, like it's not quite as easy to have an overview of what kind of medication I have to take. Sometimes it's also not so easy to have access to the right products. Products have to be exchanged and so forth.
Last but not least, the most difficult part of the story is very many people suffer from secondary side effects that are not desired. So in our presentation, we would like to focus on digital means and how to use standards and tools and make sure that the medication in future is effective, safe, and easier for the customers and also for the service providers. I would like to ask Markus, my colleague on the stage. He is the CEO of HCI Solutions, and he will talk about the eMediplan, e-prescription, and the medication tool, how they work together in our practical day-to-day situations. Markus Sager.
Thank you, Lukas, and grüezi from my part. HCI Solutions, well, internally... Oh, that's okay. We have a slogan.
We say, "Few know us, but most of us know, most of you know, use the data and services of us." And that's really true. If you think about the services and data that you use, it's when you go to the doctor, the hospitals, the care homes, or you directly via an app, the insurance app. Services and data of HCI are available, and in web shops, our data are made available and used. There are some 10 people who entered their vaccination in that app, vaccination app, and HCI has really set the standard here, together with the Federal Department of Health, together with the e-prescription and the eMediplan. I would like to talk about the customers, the software developers, mobile apps, health insurance systems. Those are our customers, our producers.
So I would like to take you along to an example. The Lucerne Cantonal Hospital, they use the Epic, a system from the US, and that is powered by the document services of HCI. This is our patient, Dora. She was an emergency case, and when she leaves the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital, she leaves with an eMediplan. It's often a printout with a QR code, with all the medications, and if necessary, also with the prescriptions in it. Those are really considerable data with such an app, application here in the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital. There are some 60,000 eMediplans that Epic issues with, which were issued with our services. We check these 60,000 eMediplans, not all, not only from time to time, but continuously, and that comes to 15 million match checks per year.
Swiss-wide, we have some interaction tests of 300 million in Switzerland with the interaction with pre-patients, and the tendency is increasing, so the trend is going upward. So this is the reality that we are faced with. Of course, the prescription and the eMediplan can be directly submitted to the pharmacy, to the Amavita, for instance, as a matter of course, and you enter the system directly. Just to give you a small example, maybe not too practice near, so I was able to understand it too. What is the value added? You go to the emergency room, they are nervous, they don't exactly know what they have as prescriptions and what, what they take in. And if I go with the medication plan to Amavita, they know about the patient's history.
They know the medication of Dora Graber, because this is her core pharmacy that she always goes to. And then there's an automatic check in the pharmacy with us in Galenica, with these HCI Solutions. And you see right away with Clarith and Sortis. So if there is a yellow warning, there is an interaction with medication, which is the case because Dora Graber failed to announce all the medications that she takes. So there's some issue, for instance, Sortis, that she takes against her cholesterol levels, and there is a side effect or an interaction with the other medications that she's given. And the pharmacist can use a tool, PharmaVista, it's called, with 1,100 pharmacies having licensed it. She can look for solutions now, and I will come back to that later.
She's looking for an alternative to the antibiotics that interacts with the Sortis medication that she takes. She finds it. Of course, she cannot change it herself. She has a discussion with the Cantonal H ospital, with a medical doctor, and sees, of course, everything is green, so everything is ticked off. The three medications do not interact with each other. They do not interact badly, and they have no negative burden or reactions to the allergy, say, of the patients. That is automatically integrated in the system, and we use it daily. Automatically, we also have the following: there's an exchange of the standard medication being switched to a generic or a biosimilar medication. That's what we often do. That is to say, if Dora Graber goes to the pharmacy, all the medication is available.
So in the meantime, the interactions have been solved, the replacement has been made with a generic medication, and she can leave the pharmacy with generics and an up-to-date eMediplan. eMediplan is really the most important factor, and that's really where you talk about the entire medication. You don't have to wait for the eRx. You don't need an app, you don't need anything. You have the digital eMediplan with you. Once the data is entered, you have all the digital, the current eMediplan available, and that really increases patient safety. Dora Graber has a young son, whatever you want to call it. Oh, she, she's the grandmother of that boy, and she's with Helsana, with...
She can use the Compassana app, and she can read in the QR code, and the eMediplan can be read. She has it digitally in her app and is reminded of the different pills and medications that she has to take, and she can thus take the necessary next steps. So what you see is you solve, well, one little sheet of paper, and then you leave, and that really works well already. There are several patient apps or insurance company apps that support that, that support the reading into the system, the different eMediplan data, and that's the state of play today. Now, we want to go further than that with HCI's.
We want to make available to the system providers a modules, we call it Medication Tool, as a project name, which serves to help not only to find products, but also to solve problems. If there is a polymedication, if a lot of different medications have to be taken, it is very often very difficult with new symptoms, with new diagnoses, to find the right solution. That's where we start, with a product that on the medical basis has medically approved software, where the doctors, the pharmacies are supported in order to come up with good and correct solutions. So on the one hand, we have the medical solutions, very personal solutions also. So we have specific data that we can add here. For instance, the dosage, et cetera, that can be individually adjusted.
On the other hand, we also have to talk about the availability. Amavita, for instance, on the one hand, so in one pharmacy, the Dora Graber pharmacy, there's live stock of certain medications. They are stocked, and you can make a reservation, or the GP can make a reservation of such and such medication. You can click on "Collect", and either go and fetch the medication yourself or be supplied or shipped at home. Now, what about having an integrated healthcare? That's also our goal on the way towards the therapy. So both work together with the same tool and can support each other easily and directly prescribe generics or whatever products that can be supplied. With this tool, we avoid unnecessary costs.
Maybe not avoid completely, but we can reduce unnecessary costs, because wrong medications often cost a lot, lead to hospitalization and a lot of suffering. Figures are not really available, but figures tend to be higher than we think. So on the one hand, it's about safety of patients and therapies, and on the other hand, we have the business enabler for Galenica's omni-channel strategy. The topics that I've mentioned, availability, click and collect, the direct steering towards a supply at home or a pharmacy to make click and collect, or to ask for blistering via the medication plan. All these are possibilities and potentials that we can make use of via that initiative. I think this is really all about it for the time being.
It's just a small insight into what we develop within the HCI network, within Galenica, and I thank you very much for your attention. Thank you.
Thank you, Markus Sager. Yes. Now we come to the Q&A part, so you can ask your questions online if you want to. Before you ask your questions, I would like to ask a question. Lukas, we've heard about the vision for a medications tool and how Galenica can make headway with it. What does it mean technically, and what kind of investment is necessary?
So in order to have these for these solutions and tools and apps we talked about to work, we need a strong back end in IT. So to build individual channels, that's something that you can do, but the omni-channel reality, that is the challenge to really be able to exchange data via the individual channels, and that's our vision for IT. So we're working on that with Galenica as a service. That is our vision for both internal and external parties to have a service platform available where you have an easy development of tools.
Great. Thank you. So let me open the Q&A then.
Yeah.
Yes, please. Please wait for the microphone.
Thank you. Well, I fully understand where you're coming from. Now, you showed the example of the Lucerne Cantonal H ospital. Of course, that's the Rolls-Royce of clinics. Now, how realistic is it that you have that rolled out across Switzerland with other healthcare providers without the Epic solution?
Well, I took Epic because it's the most complex one to integrate, no? It's already been integrated in several clinical systems. It's more than 50 hospitals already have it. So several clinical systems already have it, and we have an interaction with 48 primary systems, so it's more than reality. Epic was the most complex one again because they intended at first to do it themselves, but then they found that they need Swiss authorization to do so on Swiss data, of course.
Yes, please, in the back.
Thank you. Sibylle Bischofberger is my name, and I think it's a good thing to that eMediplan. For many years, I felt that medical doctors are really hampering development, are slowing it down. How can we achieve that everybody really is on the same page?
Well, compendium.ch, of course, is the C ompendium, as the name says, for medical doctors, and we still have 1 million users that really access the Compendium per month, and more than half are service providers. In other words, our tools are being used quite heavily by medical doctors, and therefore, it's so important that we manage to build functions that they need, so that really prove to be helpful.
And that's where we try to dock on convenience to say, "Okay, you have a benefit from this function, and we can provide you with add-on benefit with a quick e-prescription where that people can then pass on to Amavita." So that's our goal. So for medical doctors, it's all about convenience, and we have an excellent position in the system, so that's a good starting point. And level three, it's a who came first, you know, problem. So quite often, what the medical doctors want is might not be there in the system, and we now have the opportunities to talk to medical doctors and to software providers, and we're in touch with both of them, so that you avoid parallel systems. Of course, you need people to have the readiness to use the systems.
Thank you. Any more questions? Yeah. Yes, please.
Now, we have IT specialists among. How can artificial intelligence boost your productivity or the productivity of hospitals or doctors?
Well, that contribution already is a reality. AI is being used more and more. Of course, it's not the be all and end all, and it's not a panacea. But there are several sectors in e-prescription where we need to establish standards first. But we are in a good position in Switzerland because we have an excellent foundation. We have excellent standards on which to build on. Sometimes it's regulatory limits, so especially when it comes to medicinal products, there are limits to the use of AI. So wherever you have regulation, that will slow that down a bit, and you're aware of that. Now, if we certify a software as medical product, there is no AI at all, or else we won't get the certification.
What happens is, you have to validate the certified module and then people will turn to the non-validated software products. But we're seeing good synergies, which is important. It's important for a solution to be found. And so it's we're not really on the edge there. It's not our task to do that. Once there is a solution to validate it and to document it, that's an important point, and that's where we're quite active.
Excellent. Yes, we have a question in the front.
Yes, a question on the electronic patient file, which has been worked upon for three years now and is supposed to be valid across Switzerland. I admire your solutions, but isn't there a risk that the part of your solutions will become obsolete by that?
No, not at all. For our solution, it is relevant that we are aware of the medication involved, and today we don't. If somebody comes with a QR code, you say: "Thank you." But the system, of course, accesses not where the medication is there, so that's parallel channels. We get the information usually from the primary system. That's the medical doctor system, the clinical systems, where they have the information from a secondary. We are focused on ideal medication and personalized medication. We're quite active in developing the things that you mentioned, so there are several elements that we've contributed.
A quick follow-up: that electronic patient file, when will we to see that?
I used to be with Swisscom Health, and we built that. And we thought it was gonna go up for two to three years, but it's one EPD, you know, today. It is live. You can use it. It's reality. And the next use case that is ideal for us is the vaccination. So that QR code that we developed together with DRP Swiss, and that's the standards that will be used in electronic patient files, too. So that's where it started, and then e-medication, but I don't know when.
Super. Great. Thank you so much, Markus and Lukas. Thank you. Now, let us now turn to logistics, shall we? And let's have a look at the security of supply in Switzerland. The Head of Wholesale and Logistics of Galenica is with us, Andreas Koch.
Thank you so much. Yes, please leave that table with me. Thank you. Now, dear viewers online, ladies and gentlemen in the room, I'm thrilled to be able to give you a bit of insight today, how we make our logistical outlets fit for the future and, of course, attach the highest value possible to security of supply, security of our patients. So I'd like to outline three fields of action, and that are going to set the tone for the logistics of tomorrow. First, modernizing our infrastructure. Second, boosting our efficiency. And third, the consistent further development towards sustainability. Let us start with modernizing our infrastructure. Now, this is mainly about two major projects that we intend to really do together. On the one hand, we have the Advance project, and I have good news.
Namely, we were successful in completing our renovation of the distribution center in Écublens, close to Lausanne last year. Now, that's the outside building administration and operations, the picking installation, and the photovoltaics on our roofs. Now, we have the same warehouse area, but we heightened the building by 2.8 meters, so that's 10,000 cubics more in capacity. We have a higher degree of of automation and picking, so to about 70%. We've heightened the throughput, heightened the throughput by 30%, and we have boosted the operational productivity by 3%, and that means the modernized distribution center will make a major contribution to our efficiency. The other major project that we're active in is Modulo. Modulo is about launching SAP with Aloga and Galexis.
Now, we've covered quite some ground with Aloga. More than 90% of our business has been migrated to the new systems together with our partners from the pharmaceutical industry. So, out of 109 migrations, nine are still outstanding. By the beginning of the new year, the migrations will have been completed. That's when we start with Galexis to switch over to the new systems, mainly in February, with the central functions, and in the summer, with a first operations at Écublens, and afterwards we'll have Nidau in the year that follows. The full efficiency of this project can be expected to pick up in 2026.
So that's a reinvestment that was absolutely without alternative, because our old ERP system were outdated, and it's becoming ever more difficult to find people to do the maintenance work. That's why we had to ensure that we're fit for the future. Now, Modulo will provide enormous advantages for us in administration and logistics because we'll boost our efficiency. As I said, we harmonize our processes and we'll modernize them across the individual operation. We'll drive down the use of paper massively, thus driving down costs, increasing our speed and increasing our overall performance in the process. Now, Modulo will become our digital spine also for future innovations and future growth.
Our operations are becoming more flexible, and, we now are able to optimize the distribution of what we have on stock, both in regular operations, but also in difficult situations, like, if there is a shortage or a special order situation, where we can cater to our customers in a more, in an even more pinpointed way. Now, in order, to make our logistics fit for the future and efficient, we're also working on the design of our fleet. We are, testing, electrically powered pilot vehicles, and we have two biogas, transporters in day-to-day operation for quite a while. And, what is also making a contribution to optimize our logistics is driving down external transport partners, that are still on the road in, on our mandate.
There are certain distances and certain times where we continue to work with external partners, but we drive down the number in order to reduce complexity for ourselves, and at the same time, improve planification. And all of that is going to make a contribution for the sake of heightened efficiency. Now, our efforts when it comes to sustainability can be seen at several levels. We're using our roofs in Burgdorf, Écublens, and Niederbipp in order to generate power by means of solar installations. And as I said, we're testing alternative drives, which of course is going to make a major contribution to achieving our sustainability goals, apart from the heightened efficiency. Now, sustainability has a lot of aspects, and patient safety is one of them.
So, we're extremely committed in trying to find solutions for medication bottlenecks that keep on coming up. One example of that is the initiative safety stock that we've launched, and we launched that together with Sandoz. In the context of that cooperation, we heightened the stock of important generic medication in order to make sure that chronically ill patients get the therapy they need. So we provide for quality of their treatment, but also de-burden our healthcare system, because if you have to switch to a different product, that provides for a lot of effort costs and heighten the risk for the patient. Now, security of supply, that's also our next topic. Allow me to conclude my remarks. Thank you very much for your attention, and Tanya is next.
Thank you, Andreas. Thank you. And, we'll now drill down into security of supply with Christoph Amstutz, who is in charge of medication. At the beginning of the year, there was a bottleneck of vital medications, and the federal government said that that was concerning. What does that mean, and what's the status quo?
Now, there was a task force that was founded, where we opened up new warehouses. Those were the compulsory ones for antibiotics, and that takes us really to a situation where pharmacies were affected. Used to be only clinics or hospitals, but all of a sudden, we faced a shortage of penicillin.
So, we really went to compulsory warehouses, and they couldn't provide for 100% security of supply, we feared. Thank God, we had three months stock, and so we broke that peak, and there was a low effect on patients. Of course, some patients had to be substituted and with a different drug, so they didn't... They couldn't have Sandoz penicillins, but potentially a different generic drug. And Andi just mentioned it, switching from one product to the next, that's quite difficult and not good always for the patient. So, the federal government decided to have a task force.
They invited all the players in the market, together with us, to really come together and find short-term solutions. Of course, the long-term and medium-term solutions are on a different page. Of course, there is a supply report of the federal government that will be submitted, you know, to them by 2024. That's a lot of work that we have together with all the players of the industry. We're trying to do our best to come up with an action plan with eight topical points in order to provide for security of supply in the coming years.
So, you were part of that, in how far? What is the contribution you can make?
Well, we're already operating—b uilding some of these mandatory warehouse, and so we can, we will be kept in the loop at first glance. In the past, the federal government tried to solve this all by themselves, but when they tried to put things into practice, you had to tell them: "Yeah, but you have to distribute it in a just and fair way, and it has to be made accessible to those who need it most." So how do we put that into practice? And over the past two years, ever since COVID, I would say, they have started to rethink in the government, so, that we are in a loop early on, that, representative of the ministry, turned to us and, and said, "Before we, reinvent the wheel, let's see whether you can integrate that.
Well, you mentioned that the stock is available for three months. What about the mandatory stock? Couldn't you say six to eight months would be the necessary stock?
The people would kill me, really, because the stock warehouses wouldn't have the right capacity. I think we have to be realistic that mandatory supply for Switzerland, three months really suffices for three months to cover a pandemic. That's reaching the limit, and I think the suppliers then will have to be able to stock the warehouses. But that's what happened during the pandemic. So there were a host of new infections, and last year there was a high number of infections. Well, in December, they needed six months' worth of antibiotics, which really came to mean that we had no more stocks available.
Sandoz really expanded their stock in Switzerland, and this year we can certainly have sufficient wares available. In a normal situation, in normal infection situations in Switzerland, we should survive the winter sufficiently. So the situation is better now.
Now, what about the measures? What can Switzerland do in order to de-burden the situation?
Well, that's really one of the most important questions: What are the products that need to be announced and really be stocked? 120, 20 that needed to be stocked, and 200 that were, yeah, really important for survival. So vaccinations, antibiotics, which we consider important for survival. Then there was cough syrups, for instance, or laxatives. That was not really that important, but that was what was read in the press.
Now, what was done as of January, we will have some 30% more stock and 50% more announcement mandate. That's about oncology products, for instance. But the question is, all the products that have to be prescribed and that the health insurance pay will have to be announced so that we have an indication as to where there is a lag. Because then the producers or the manufacturers will have to say 14 days before they are out of stock, that they will be out of stock, so that they can react at an early stage, so that we do not reach a crisis when it comes to products, new products, for instance.
Just think about diabetes, diabetic products that are used now to reduce weight. So the misuse, the abuse of products, that's not our economic side that needs to focus on. It's really important to differentiate.
Thank you. Time's up, so I would like to focus now on your questions. Are there any questions you might have? I have a question. What about the warehouses? Who pays for them?
The industry, the manufacturers, they pay for the warehouses. That's their obligation, and the shipment for the wares to the pharmacies. But we create the system. We know that for fuels, for energy, think about the grid, for instance. It's in the end, the consumer who pays.
So I think at one point, we will have a compensation via the public price that we will see when it comes to all of this. When we're talking about CHF 10 million-CHF 15 million for the whole of Switzerland, it's really a few cents or percentages of Swiss Francs only that will be concerned.
There's a question? Yes.
You've mentioned the bottlenecks. In the past, we had discussions about the generics pricing system, and supply chain bottlenecks were always seen that... I mean, people said we have to have a different approach. The experiences of the past two years, where we had a heightened problem, has that led to a solution where we say: "Well, yes, we have to wait and see what we do?"
Yes, I can give you a clear answer here. Together with the health department, we have a close cooperation. So if there are products missing, when they, when they, they can remove, then when it comes to checking the prices, they, the industry will have to say: "Well, we cannot have that price increase," and we support that from the side of the industry then. In the past few years, we had some 100 products or price reductions that were not realized, and the recommendation I give is, please, ask, for the reductions of prices that they do not, that they do not fall off with. Of course, the federal state has to check everything, but they don't have to implement it. That's a major opportunity that we have here.
Okay, are there further questions? Maybe I could ask a question. Andreas, your topic, what about the lack of skilled workers in logistics?
That's a very good question, indeed. I would say that when it comes to logistics, for the time being, there is no acute shop floor level lack of skilled workers. We have some minimum requirements, some minimum requirements for linguistic skills or in warehouses, competencies, namely, people have to be able to count. If you miscount all the time, you'll have a hard time in a logistics center. So I think by way of competition in other branches, we are in a good position if we say, "Well, we need logistics logisticians with IT experiences or IT specialists who specifically are trained for logistics," then the situation is a little different, and we really have to try and attract such staff members.
Good. Okay. Thank you, Andreas and Christoph. Thank you. Well, we are closing the circle again, and I would like to ask Felix Burkhard, the host of this meeting, to come to the stage for a talk and then for questions afterwards.
Felix, it was impressive to see what you're doing and that things are working so well. So the question is, the Galenica aims for 2023, will they be surpassed, and will Galenica produce a wonderful result?
Well, I'm really enthusiastic myself, I have to admit, from all those presentations, from the info booths and discussions that we've had today. So therefore, the question is a very relevant one and a justified one. Now, when it comes to sales, we are very optimistic that the guidance will be reached, by the end of the year. We just assume that between 3% and 6% growth can be realized. EBIT guidance, well, we... There were some extraordinary costs, CHF 9.8 million were reduced, and these, that EBIT guidance still applies. We expect the same EBIT, more or less as in the previous year. We had CHF 190.5 million EBIT.
That is an ambitious goal. There's a strong end of year comparative or year. December 2022 was very strong, with a very strong flu wave, and despite that, we are very optimistic whether we will be able to reach the EBIT guidance. But again, we need a good year-end result, really, for that.
Well, we've also heard about digitization on the channel online. We've also seen that in the summary of today. Galenica invests heavily. What about Galenica's expectations? How soon will the market shift from offline to online, and what will the effect be for Galenica?
I think for the different ranges, we'll have to take a separate look at them. First of all, to the prescription business. We've heard a lot about prescriptions, the e-prescriptions, the spread of that e-prescription will certainly shift from offline to online businesses. We've heard from Markus there are some very good solutions already available today, and we're convinced as soon as the solutions are easier for the medical doctors to realize, to... Rather than writing out a paper document, they will use e-prescriptions. In the midterm, in Switzerland, we do not count on that being obligatory or mandatory soon. The market will be quicker than the regulatory bodies.
But it's really important, the electronic prescription does not mean automatically online sales, because the patient can, with an electronic prescription, he can go to a direct pharmacy, or he can cash it in online, of course. And then the OTC liberalization. We've heard a lot about the OTC, the over-the-counter business. We expect that there will be a change of the legislation at the earliest in 2027, so the legislative process will take some more years. This liberalization, however, will certainly also mean a shift towards more online business taking place. And then the non-medication, the medicinal products, we count on a strong online growth in the market.
What about the consequences for us? Well, we've heard it today. We will be ready for all the ranges, prescriptions, OTC, other products. We will be able to provide a good solution for all of these products. We invest heavily today so that in the future we will be able to benefit from these changes.
The AI initiatives that Daniele mentioned, and they really sound good, but we need some investment in personnel. Virginie Pache mentioned that. What about Galenica, and how can you finance that cost?
Well, of course, we count on additional growth by the care initiatives. Daniele has said it. There's some growth potential by attracting new customers, more sales when it comes to, for instance, at-home care or care for the elderly in care institutions. We invest in our personnel so that the strategic initiatives and the care initiatives can be implemented. And of course, these costs have an effect on profitability, but it's really clearly an investment into the future.
When we're talking about cost pressure, Andreas Koch mentioned it earlier, there are these major projects in Logistics & IT fields. What about these additional costs? When will they be removed?
Well, Andreas said it. There are two intensive years of projects in front of us, 2024, with the roll-off of the central headquarter and then the distribution center. And then the rollout in Niederbipp in 2025, and the finalization of the project. As of 2026, we hope for efficiency increases, thanks to the finalization of this major project. On the other hand, as of 2025, we count on more depreciation on the investment, which really is will be part of the if or compensate the efficiency increase.
Well, we haven't really heard of your own products. Is that area less important for Galenica in future?
Oh, no, really, quite on the contrary. That's a wrong impression, really, that you have there. The proprietary brands will be a major part of our strategy. The market share in 2023 really increased to more than 10%, and we are clear market leader here in this area. And there's some growth potential here also. We keep on looking for new fitting products in order to supplement our product portfolio. Okay.
So floor is yours for a summary of what you expect for the coming years.
Well, happy to do so. Market development expectations, and there is one more slide that I would like to show you, and I need some more time, really. Let me start by talking about the market development expectations in the coming years. In the past two to three years, the pharmaceutical market, that's to say, Swissmedic-approved medications, the List A to D. In the past two years, that pharmaceutical market saw a bigger growth than in the years before. And our expectation is that this growth will continue at a high level in the coming years. We expect a market growth in the coming years of some ±5%. The main driver of that growth, and we've heard that, at various occasions, is the demographic change, but also innovation in the pharmaceutical area with new specialist and very expensive medications.
The market growth where we focus on most is the hospital area with expensive medications. But also when it comes to practitioners and pharmacies, we expect, say, a growth between 3% and 5%, a little less with the medical doctors. Then for the non-medication product ranges in pharmacies, that's to say, beauty, cosmetics, foods, nutrients, products, we expect a stagnating market there, a flat development, really, in that range of in pharmacies. The competitors in the entire retail, online, offline, will continue to be strong. It is today strong, and it will continue to be strong in the future, too, here.
Now, if we take a look at these market development expectations and take a look at the Galenica local pharmacy, the average one, that's to say, we'd say 72% of medications without high price medications for efficiency reasons, they will be dealt with via MediService and 28% will not be included. So we expect a market growth of between 1% and 3% in this average Galenica local pharmacy. So far for the market growth, and now we would like to come to our forecasts, our estimates for the coming years.
In this market environment , we count on a net sales for Galenica to grow by 3%-5% in the next years. That's an increase in the growth prognosis. Now, we really counted on 1%-3% only. So it's a whole higher one. And in terms of wholesale, that's the Logistics & IT segment. We count on 3%-5% market growth, which I've explained to you. We have market shares that are very high, and we really want to keep these market shares, but that is very ambitious indeed. Maybe a little too ambitious. When it comes to pharmacies, the major part of our Products & Care range we'll see a 1%-3% market growth, as I have shown you earlier. But we also count on expansion.
New pharmacies, expansion of the network, further optimization of the pharmacy network, but also when it comes to Products & Care, new products will be introduced. And these expansion effects, that's clear, can vary from year to year. But on average, plus minus 1% additional growth by or expansion by can be realistic in the coming years, too. And we've heard it. Of course, we also want to focus on the other strategic investment, omni-channel, home care, and so forth, and to we want to really seek to additional potential there. And when it comes to Products & Care, in that growth corridor, we would like to stay in that 3%-5% range of growth. Now, return...
Well, the midterm EBIT margins will be confirmed more than 9.95% when it comes to Products & C are, and up to 2% for Logistics & IT segment when it comes to return on sales. How do we want to reach that? Thanks to the different investment that we have talked about today, we expect efficiency increases and additional growth potential. In addition, we also plan on expanding our pharmacy network and optimize it, and also the product portfolio and the warehousing, the stocktaking will be also added. We also want to talk about the EBIT margin goals. When do we want to reach them? 2027. That is to say, when we will celebrate our 100th Galenica anniversary. And in that anniversary year, we want to have an EBIT of over CHF 250 million.
So that would be a real milestone in the history of Galenica.
Over the coming two years, 2024 and 2025, we expect, for the time being, a stabilization of the EBIT margin. How come? Well, we've heard the indicators, today. We have the Modulo project, the new ERP system that will be launched, and we've already said that two more intensive project years will be ahead of us there. Then, investments into digital omni-channel infrastructure, that's a lot of, you know, basic work that will not immediately translate into add-on sales or cost reduction. Then, of course, the shortage of labor and that will put pressure on our EBIT margin. When it comes to investment, we expect a stable development over the coming years. So, that's ±CHF 70 million a year, in other words. The leverage target remains unchanged.
That's ±2x EBITDA, adjusted for leasing liabilities. The dividend guidance remains unchanged, at least stable dividends with growing results. So much for the medium-term guidance in detail. You can see it's ambitious goals that we're talking about, but we're absolutely confident that we will achieve them. We have great market, we have a great positioning, and strategically, we've tackled the right questions.
Thank you, Felix, so much. Thank you. So, that's... Now's the time for a big Q&A. Now, please ask your questions now. Yes, please. Jan Koch, in the back. Wait for the microphone, please.
Merci. Super. Great, thank you. I have a question on the cost pressure in 2024 and 2025. Yeah, you gave us three reasons. Could you quantify that a bit more and explain that in greater detail? And when it comes to the investments in personnel, for instance, is that for the salary increase, disproportionately so in 2024, or is it simply about add-on personnel you intend to recruit?
Well, last year, the wage sum went up by 3%, a net of CHF 15 million that we invested into wage increases. Now, the wage policy for the coming years will be communicated later, but we do not believe that we'll see an increase to the tune that we saw last year.
On the other hand, we believe that we'll have to stick to inflation, so wage increases at least on the level of inflation. So just to give you a corridor, a band of where this should be headed, but it's too early to give you specifics for the coming years, because that really depends on the inflation in the market and how that develops. Now, add-on personnel, that is what we built over the past few years for the sake of implementing our omni-channel strategies, IT, marketing, all of that, were investments in personnel too. We believe that we'll rather stabilize now and not build more personnel. And when it comes to pharmacy personnel, Virginie mentioned that today, and we saw that.
We've seen initial success derived from the measures that we took to combat the shortage of labor. So we managed to keep our experts, and so we had a bit of a disproportionate increase when it came to personnel costs. So, we're working on that intensively, as you heard from Virginie, to retain people and to boost efficiency even more in pharmacies. So just, I hope that fits your question. Yes, that was very helpful. A follow-up, if I may. Now, you've mentioned already that the further valuing pharmacies is part of your strategies. Will they become fewer in the future due to the shortage of labor, so that in the future you would optimize more rather than build more pharmacies? Now, our guidance remains unchanged.
We continue to intend to buy five to 15 pharmacies a year, usually by acquisitions or by opening up new ones. But over... At the same time, of course, there will be optimizations, just like in the previous year, closing down in order to strengthen the pharmacies for the future. So the net expansion might be a bit below the range that I gave you. Thank you.
Thank you. Now, there's a question from the internet: Why were the mid-term goals heightened? Sanamali is asking.
Now, first and foremost, the profitability goals were confirmed. We made them more detailed. And when it comes to sales, as I said, over the past few years, we have grown much more strongly than the medium-term guidance said. The market grew faster. So our perspective on the future development in the market is that in the coming year, too, we will see further heightened growth, and that's why the medium-term goals were adapted accordingly.
Thank you. Now, your focus today has been on innovation and the strategic targets of Galenica. Could you give us an update in terms of the regulatory things that we can expect by 2027? So distribution model, where are we in terms of generics, and so on?
Now, prices will continue to go down. There's no surprises there, we believe. So that three-year cycle, that medication will be checked. One third medication will be checked per year, and prices will go down accordingly. That's something that we believe will continue.
Some of them are ruled out or excluded, as Christoph was saying, I wouldn't be unhappy, but we believe it will have an influence or an impact. So that's business as usual. The major topic that's been floating around the room for years now is the distribution margin. And this summer, we kept on thinking, "Oh, it's coming. It's coming. Oh, the government is going to decide." Now, and then there were more headlines and press reports, and then it was swept off the table. It was not the ideal solution. Now, there is another roundtable that's looking for solutions. Very, very hard to discern whether that will happen tomorrow or in three years' time.
So that might depend on the new Minister for Health that Marc was pointing at, so it's very hard to tell. Given the models that are being discussed today, we believe that for Galenica, for the group per se, it's a more or less neutral decision that will be taken, so not an essential effect the way we're seeing the models under discussion right now. And apart from that, there's a host of other topics, but they are next steps, liberalization and so on and so forth, and that will have a direct impact on our business, of course.
Thank you.
Now, when it comes to wholesale, your two biggest competitors have teamed up in a joint venture. What kind of an effect does that have on you and on Galenica?
Well, of course, we have strong competitors, and that's what we want. In the short term, number two and three team up together, they usually tend to focus on one another. There's a lot to be done. André might be able to tell you more about that later on. But we're the clear at number one, and we intend to keep that position and build from that. And, we're, of course, interested in strong competitors again. Anything else, André? But you have to remember to use a microphone, André.
I, I believe it's on.
Now, of course, that illustrates the pressure that is there in the market, and we see that, across Europe.
Celesio withdrew from the entire market, although they were quite strong in that market, and they left everything to the Phoenix Group. The Phoenix Group took over Celesio, wherever possible. Then Switzerland's strategy was being called into question: When can Phoenix grow? They did grow when teaming up with Voigt in that joint venture. I believe that illustrates 10 equals in the market wouldn't be able to survive, all of them. So things are sort of coming together. Now there is a bit of that economic hope floating around. When two pair up, they say in economics, usually it's not 2.5, but rather 1.8. And if two remain in the market, of course, there can be a potential.
On the other hand, we're taking that very seriously because a new joint venture is operating in the west of Switzerland and in the German-speaking part, the two very important regions, which wasn't the case before. So the modernization of Voigt will be to their benefit, but there will be a transitional phase, definitely, until everything really is the way they envisage things to be. And some customers probably will think about whether they've come to the right people. Now, we're hoping... We're opting for Swissness, really, and we believe that we can make a major contribution there. Voigt now has decided to team up with a German multinational for Swiss medical doctors and pharmacies. That does something to them.
A question I meant to ask before, though, how about what Bern is saying? Because they—you only have two people.
Now, yes, so that was in the healthcare for the country, almost a defense. Now, we work with all wholesalers, and it's all about security of supply in Switzerland, isn't it? And what is important for us is that they're well harmonized so that if one falls under the table, the other one can take over, and there is contracts, and then it's simply business. So, we help if that's okay.
Thank you. Yes, please.
Question on the guidance of 2027, CHF 250 million in EBIT, and the OTC liberalization won't come before 2027. So, what I'd like to know, have you taken the OTC liberalization, in fact, into account or not?
As I said, we do see opportunities arising from that liberalization. And, specifically, there is, of course, a downside to things, and we do not take that, as part of our guidance. What we take into our guidance is that we have the right solutions once the liberalization comes, and we may profit from it.
Now, to follow up on the EBITDA for the coming two years, you're quite reticent, or cautious, rather. So you're saying, a flat margin. Does that mean major leaps for 2026 and 2027?
Now, well, leaps, it's not going to be leaps, because we already have a high level, when it comes to the EBIT margin. But, a clear, market growth, yes, when it comes to the EBIT margin. Now, the immediate, jump, leap would be logistics, of course. Because we've had, project costs, for years, internal teams, external teams, and there will be a boost in efficiency that will have to be there once the project is completed. But there are other initiatives where we expect addition, add-on growth, a boost in efficiency, that will allow us, to really reach our goals, for, 2027, also in terms of the EBIT margin.
And a quick question on the investment. CHF 70 million , you said, for the coming two years in your guidance and afterwards, will that figure go down because the projects have been completed?
We do not anticipate that. So, in the mid-term, we expect stable investment. Of course, the investment of these projects will go away, but we're realistic enough, because if we want to continue to digitize, to evolve the corporation, then there will be new investment to take Galenica to the future and further. So we do not anticipate receding investment in the mid-term. Thank you.
Any more questions?
Over these 2027 to CHF 250 million, is that with or without M&A?
It is with M&A. So, some of the pharmacies, range of five to 15, as I said, will be added. Then there will be a product here and there to round out the portfolio. So basically, that's what is part of the guidance. Now, if we had a super opportunity to take over a large-scale company, that would not be included, naturally.
Any more questions?
Yeah.
Yes, please.
Just quite briefly. We heard in the beginning, it's important to see who will become the new minister. Now, what's your— what's the wish catalog you have?
Well, that's a political question! We have a CEO for that.
Well, I'm apolitical.
No, that's a great question. It's really cool. But if I write a catalog, the minister's not going to read it, I'm sure, and let alone execute my plans. But you've heard the plans, and you've heard the topics that we're dealing with. We're trying to really finalize also some of our plans and projects. And of course, we talked about that on the break. So financing, funding, inpatient, outpatient care, I believe that's something that needs to be done finally, because that will have an effect on the cost in the overall system. A paradox, that is something that is being under discussion.
The medical doctors also believe that there are several things, there are pricing systems that really need to come under discussion on other sectors that are not directly part of our business. So there's quite a host of tasks ahead for the new health minister, so we cannot continue to discuss matters for another five or six years. So I hope that things will really be implemented. Now, when I go to work, I listen to the radio station, national radio, and they had a message in the morning that the SVP, the conservative party, will no longer leave the healthcare to the left-leaning parties. So let's see whether that will become better.
But whether it's left or right, that will have the health minister position, I wish for less dogma and more pragmatism in the discussion. That's important, I believe.
Are there any other further questions? If not, okay, so final words for you.
Okay, so we have reached the end. I thank all of you for your patience, for your active participation here in Zürich, but also back home, online, who participated online. Dear colleagues, thank you so much for those very interesting contributions. Thank you to all those who aided and helped us out behind the scenes, in the info booths, and in the preparation of this event. You have made this event possible, and that was really a fantastic job you did. Thank you also to you, Tanya, for your professional hosting of this meeting. Now, if you should have any further questions to us, of course, we will be around for a few minutes and available to answer them.
Of course, you can also contact us by email, by telephone, and ask questions via that channel. Thank you so much. See you again. Have a nice evening, and have a safe trip back home. Thank you.