Cosmetics retailer Douglas is venturing into new business areas. With the purchase of the Dutch online pharmacy disapo.de the company is expanding its online business.
The perfumery chain Douglas wants to cut a slice of the rapidly growing online pharmacy market and takes over the Dutch shipping pharmacy for this purpose disapo.de . “We are planning a gradual expansion of the online pharmacy offer into our core European countries, which will allow us to enter a market with total sales of more than 160 billion euros in 2020,” said Board member Vanessa Stützle on Thursday.
“In the course of the future introduction of the e-prescription in Germany, an enormous increase in the online pharmacy business is to be expected,” said CEO Tina Müller. Douglas will connect Disapo to its own online platform and thus offer millions of Douglas customers access to the online pharmacy.
Purchase price is unknown
Disapo founder Sebastian Kraus will remain Managing Director of the company, which with 200 employees achieved sales in the high double-digit million range last year. Douglas did not provide any information on the purchase price. The deal is expected to be finalized in the course of spring.
For Douglas, the acquisition offers the opportunity to expand its own product range. So far, the company has been selling dietary supplements, pharmacy cosmetics and so-called Doctor brands in its Douglas Pro health range, i.e. products that advertise with the names of dermatologists or medical professionals.
With the introduction of the e-prescription, Douglas is now betting that interest in the online purchase of medicines will also increase. Of the 60 billion euros that the pharmacy market in Germany records annually, only five percent is currently accounted for by online purchases, but that might change quickly.
