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ICA announces in-store pharmacy plans

Swedish retailer ICA has announced plans to open 100 pharmacies across the country.

Published: 9 October 2009 15:25 CEST

The first stores will open in the spring of 2010 and will sell both prescription and non-prescription drugs, according to a company press release.

The company expressed confidence in the pharmacy market, which was opened up to free market competition on July 1st 2009, ending the state-run Apoteket chain’s monopoly.

“We see great possibilities in the new market. When our discussions over a partnership with Apoteket could not continue, we have decided to open under our own management,” Kenneth Bengtsson, ICA CEO said.

The pharmacies will be located in existing ICA stores and will be operated and owned by the firm, a so-called shop-in-shop solution.

“Our ambition is to open around 100 stores in the Swedish market in the longer term,” Bengtsson said.

The second stage of the pharmacy monopoly deregulation, set to take effect on November 1st, will allow grocery stores and other retail outlets to sell certain non-prescription drugs to customers over the age of 18.

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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.