OREANDA-NEWS. On 30 April 2009 OJSC Pharmacy Chain 36.6 [RTS:APTK; MICEX:RU14APTK1007] the leading Russian pharmaceutical retailer announced unaudited sales and operational results according to the management accounts.

Group sales[1]:

Y-O-Y Group’s consolidated sales decreased by 38.8% and reached USD 171.5 million.

Y-O-Y Pharmacy Retail Sales decreased by 38.9% in dollar terms and reached USD 140.3 million versus 229.6 in Q1 2008 (in ruble terms retail sales decreased by 13.2% from 5 496.1 mln RUB in Q1 2008 to 4 769.5 mln RUB in Q1 2009).

Y-O-Y Sales of finished goods of the production unit Veropharm decreased by 22.0% and reached USD 26.1 million.

Y-O-Y other non-core businesses decreased by 67.5% as the Company no longer consolidates the operation of European Medical Center.

Jere Calmes, President and CEO of Pharmacy Chain 36.6:

“Our first quarter sales numbers are representative of the considerable decline of the ruble dollar exchange rate and the extraordinary pressures of the global economic crises that translates for us into a challenging operating environment and difficulty in finding sources of funding. The regions of Russia have been more severely affected than our core Moscow market and management continues to focus on rigorously attacking operating expenses, closing non-performing stores and delivering low cost, high quality products to our clients.”

Retail:

As of the end of Q1 2009 Pharmacy Chain 36.6 operated 1084 stores in 29 regions of Russia.

During Q1 2009 7 stores were opened organically and 50 were closed (no stores were rebranded or reformatted).

As of the end of Q1 2009 Pharmacy Chain 36.6 operated 9 ELC stores, 14 stand-alone optical outlets and 19 additional optical departments within pharmacies.

Operational data for the retail unit

During Q1 2009 21.0 million purchases were made in Pharmacy Chain 36.6, which is 23.5% lower than in Q1 2008.

In Q1 2009 average check across the network reached USD 6.92 (RUR 235), in Moscow — USD 9.8 (RUR 332), a decrease over 15.8% and 16.2% respectively in dollar terms and a growth of 18.1% and 17.3% respectively in ruble terms.

Average sales floor size in Q1 2009 is 62.2 sq meters, an increase of 1.6% versus Q1 2008.

Private label:

In Q1 2009 the private label sales reached USD 8.3 mln (RUR 279.6 mln) which represents a  44.4% growth in dollar terms and 103.9% growth in ruble terms compared to Q1 2008.

In Q1 2009 the share of private label sales reached 6%.

The number of SKUs has increased by 73.3% from 427 at the end of Q1 2008 to 740 by the end of Q1 2009.

Like-For-Like sales in comparable stores[3]

As of the end of Q1 2009 the Company operates 619 comparable stores representing 66 % of sales and 62% of traffic in the retail unit in Q1 2009.

L-F-L sales reduction in these stores reached 35% as compared to Q1 2008 (in dollar terms) and 8% decrease (in ruble terms) while traffic decreased by 21%.

Debt:

As of the end of Q1 2009, the total Group’s financial debt (the principal amount) declined to USD 141.2 million from USD 150.5 by the end of 2008 due to the exchange rate effect.

[1] Hereinafter – these financial indicators may vary from the consolidated  financial  reporting prepared in accordance with IFRS.

[2] Sales of Veropharm’s finished goods

[3] Sales of Veropharms’ finished goods – USD 33.3 mln, other revenue – USD 1.4 mln.

[4] Comparable stores are defined as stores: