OREANDA-NEWS. On 26 February 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 increased by 21,6% and reached USD  1 058,9 million.

Y-O-Y Pharmacy Retail Sales grew by 24,9% and reached USD  840,8 million.

Y-O-Y Sales of the production unit Veropharm grew by 23,0% and reached USD  171,6 million.

Y-O-Y Sales of Early Learning Center grew by 90% to USD 5.7 million.

Y-O-Y other non-core businesses declined by 26,1% as the Company no longer consolidates the operation of European Medical Center.

Jere Calmes, President and CEO of Pharmacy Chain 36.6:

“Our preliminary 2008 results show some important achievements.  Despite the difficult Q4 downturn, we managed full year growth of over 21% in both our pharmaceutical retail and manufacturing units. We have significantly reduced our financial debt and made a solid breakthrough in our retail chain private label program. Nevertheless, the difficult economic and financing environment continues to present challenges for our business going forward. We will continue to work with our Board of Directors to resolve the funding issues while focusing on cost reduction in the operations and value propositions for our customers”.

Retail:

As of the end of 2008 Pharmacy Chain 36.6 operated 1127 stores in 29 regions of Russia.

During 2008 86 stores were opened organically and 183 were closed. In Q4 19 stores were opened and 60 stores were closed. During 2008, 12 stores were rebranded and 3 reformatted (in Q4 no stores were rebranded or reformatted).

As of the end of 2008 Pharmacy Chain 36.6 operated 11 ELC stores, 14 stand-alone optical outlets and 21 additional optical departments within pharmacies.

Operational data for the retail unit

During 2008 101,3 million purchases were made in Pharmacy Chain 36.6, which is 11,8 % higher than in 2007. In Q4 2008 23,9 million purchases were made which is 9,4 % less than in comparable period of 2007.

In 2008 average check across the network reached USD  8.46, in Moscow — USD  12.0, an increase over 2007 15.1% and 11.1% respectively. In Q4 2008 average check across the network reached USD  8,26, in Moscow – USD  11,5, an increase over comparable period of 2007 5,5% and 1% respectively.

Average sales floor size at the end of 2008 is 61.5 sq meters, an increase of 1,2 % versus 2007.

Private label:

In 2008 the private label sales reached USD  34,8 million which represents 299.5% growth compared to 2007.

In 2008 the share of private label sales reached 4,1% as compared to 1,3% in 2007.

The number of SKUs has increased by 118,8% from 319 at the end of 2007 to 698 by the end of 2008.

Like-For-Like sales in comparable stores[2]

As of the end of 2008 the Company operates 603 comparable stores representing 61% of sales and 57% of traffic in the retail unit in 2008.

L-F-L sales growth in these stores reached 10% as compared to 2007 while traffic decreased by 8%:

L-F-L sales in Q4 2008 decreased by 10 % as compared to Q4 2007 driven by the foreign exchange effect of rouble depreciation and the very challenging economic environment (in rouble terms the L-F-L sales in Q 4 2008 remained at the same level as compared to Q4 2007). Traffic decreased by 15% in Q4 2008 as compared to Q4 2007.

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

[2] Comparable stores are defined as stores:

Opened or acquired 24 months from the current reporting period, and

Neither rebranded nor reformatted or somehow significantly changed during last 24 months, and

Not closed in the current reporting period.