Apr 3rd, 2009: Drugstore sales rise strongly in 2008
Over the last few years, German drugstores outperformed a lot of traditional retailers, especially supermarkets, in terms of growth. This trend also continued last year. Offering mainly an assortment consisting of personal care products, housewares, digital photo prints, wines, and fine foods, drugstore chain DM saw sales climb 11.4 percent to € 3.36 billion, followed by Rossmann (up 6.2 percent to € 2.9 billion) and Müller (plus 6.6 percent to over € 2 billion). Biggest drugstore operator Schlecker, however, registered a 5 percent fall in sales, down to € 5.1 billion. This is mainly attributed to the huge, not always profitable store network. With approximately 10,700 stores all over Germany, Schlecker has ten-fold as many shops as DM (1,010 stores) and seven-fold as many as Rossmann (1,500 outlets).
