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APOTEKET

Apoteket profits down

Apoteket, Sweden’s state-owned pharmacy, has reported falling profits for the first nine months of 2005. The company’s post-tax profits were 130 million kronor for the period January-September. This compares with profits of 155 million kronor in the same period in 2004.

Published: 7 November 2005 13:56 CET

Turnover at the company rose to 26.3 billion kronor, up from 25.3 billion kronor in the first nine months of last year.

“Self-care and service sales are contributing positively to Apoteket’s results, whereas income from handling prescription drugs is not covering costs,” the company’s interim report said.

Apoteket has a monopoly position on the Swedish market for the sale of prescription and over-the-counter medication. It also sells a wide range of own-brand and branded cosmetics and consumer healthcare products.

RACISM

Pharmacy to launch plasters for darker skin

Swedish pharmacy chain Apoteket has told The Local it is hoping to offer a range of bandaids suitable for customers with darker skin tones by the end of the year as part of efforts to cut discrimination.

Published: 12 August 2015 16:10 CEST
Updated: 13 August 2015 08:04 CEST
Pharmacy to launch plasters for darker skin
An Apoteket store in Stockholm. Photo: Roger Vikström/TT
The company, which has 370 stores across Sweden said it had come up with the idea after talking to a number of Swedish anti-racism charities.
 
“We're looking at whether it's possible to have different coloured plasters but we haven't made a final decision on it yet,” Communications Director Eva Fernvall told The Local on Wednesday.
 
“It won't happen by next week but we hope to have something in place by the end of the year,” she added.
 
Apoteket faced criticism earlier this week by a Swedish blogger who runs the website Vardagsrasismen.nu (which translates as 'Everyday Racism').
 
Paula Dahlberg told public broadcaster Sveriges Radio on Monday that the pharmacy giant was contributing to racism by only offering shades of beige plasters (also called bandaids in some countries) on its shelves.
 
But Fernvall insisted that the company's decision to trial darker products was made long before the writer made the comments.
 
“The fact she said that demonstrates that there are heated discussions about immigrants and refugees right now,” she said, adding that the national chemist chain was committed to reducing discrimination.
 
She admitted that the plaster plan was “unusual” and noted that she had “never heard of anything like this in any other countries”.
 
Debates around immigration have intensified over the last 12 months in Sweden, which currently takes in more asylum seekers per capita than any other EU nation.
 
The nationalist Sweden Democrat party is the third largest in parliament after winning 12.9 percent of the vote in elections in September 2014 and is continuing to gain public support.
 
Sweden's government has said it is committed to maintaining the nation's reputation for tolerance and offering help to refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East and Africa. But it has welcomed efforts by the European Commission to encourage other European Union member states to take in a greater share of asylum seekers.