The Reig Jofre group increased its sales by 15% last year, to 271 million, and aims to exceed 300 million this year, driven by its international expansion, especially in Eastern Europe and the Nordic countries.
The group's CEO, Ignasi Biosca, explained that the group wants to replicate the success achieved in Poland, where it opened a subsidiary in the midst of a pandemic to sell its specialty medicines (for osteoarticular ailments and dermatology) and has already exceeded 7 million euros. of sales.
The company is now beginning this process in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as in Sweden, where its presence up to now had been industrial, with a production plant in Malmö, and from there it also plans to start operating with its own brand in Finland.
Biosca explained that the group already obtains 56% of its sales abroad, with sales in more than 70 countries, but in many of them it sells its products through local distributors. With this formula, the group entered Ukraine, Peru, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia last year. For this year, the company also plans to strengthen its presence in France, where it is already the eighth company in self-care products for health under the Forté Pharma brand, promoting specialty medicines.
Joaquín García-Agustí, director of this business area, recalled that this product portfolio had a turnover of 49 million when it was acquired from Bioibérica in 2019, and closed last year with 80.4 million and already represents 30% of the group's sales. .
Last year Reig Jofre reached an operating profit or Ebitda of 30.4 million euros, 11% higher than in 2011. A growth lower than that of sales, recognized Biosca, because the increase in costs erodes the margins in medicines of prescription that have had their prices frozen for more than a decade. "We sell pediatric antibiotic syrups below the production price," he lamented, a factor that causes some multinational manufacturers to stop selling their products in Spain.
The company reduced its investment last year to 13.4 million euros, having already completed its freeze-dried factory in Sant Joan Despí and another for antibiotics in Toledo, with a total investment of 150 million euros. "In the coming years we will focus on making these factories profitable and we will allocate the resources that we generate to reduce the debt", which has already dropped to 60 million euros, twice the Ebitda.
Reig will distribute a flexible dividend this year (shareholders can choose to receive it in cash or in shares) of 3.2 million euros, 40% of the profits, which were 8.2 million euros, 60% more than in 2021. The firm, Biosca explained, expects to be able to distribute a cash dividend to all shareholders in two or three years.
