Oriola-KD to join forces with KF on the Swedish pharmacy market
Oriola-KD and KF (Kooperativa Förbundet) have agreed to join forces on the Swedish pharmacy market, which will be deregulated on 1 July 2009. The cooperation comprises of preparation for the divestment process of Apoteket AB's pharmacy clusters and the establishment of new pharmacies, mainly in conjunction with Coop's hyper and supermarkets owned by KF. The target of Oriola-KD and KF is to establish a joint venture, in which Oriola-KD would hold the majority ownership and be responsible for the development and management of the pharmacy chain.
A precondition for the establishment of the joint venture is the acquisition of a sufficient number of pharmacies in the pharmacy cluster divestment process, which would make the creation of a significant new pharmacy chain possible.
After the deregulation of the Swedish pharmacy market, also other actors than Apoteket AB are allowed to run pharmacies. In conjunction with the deregulation, 466 pharmacies will be sold to large and midsize companies and around 150 of the pharmacies remaining in state ownership will be sold to entrepreneurs and small business owners in a separate process. Apoteket AB will retain 330 pharmacies. There are currently some 946 pharmacies in Sweden.
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