Tofarm plans to be market leader through acquisitions

"We want to become the leader in the pharmaceutical wholesale market," declared the company's president Kazimierz Herba. "The realistic term for this to happen is the end of next year," he added. Torfarm currently has a 10% share of the market which puts it behind the Polish Pharmaceutical Group with a 19% share and Farmacol with 16%. The company wants to catch up with them by taking over smaller pharmaceutical wholesalers which do not have their own pharmacies. In Q1 2006, Torfarm increased its sales by 11.4% (as compared to Q1 2005) to zł.406 million and its profit grew by almost 150% to zł.3.2 million. Therefore, the board decided to recommend paying out 30% of the profit in dividends. (Puls Biznesu, p. 12) E.B.