Trade
Drugstore chain dm is expanding health offerings
A good two million people shop at dm every day. The chain is expanding its offering with new services, an online pharmacy and 24/7 pickup stations.
The drugstore chain dm is increasingly focusing on the topic of health and wants to break new ground there. People are more concerned with their health, explained CEO Christoph Werner in Karlsruhe. In addition, a “health crisis” is emerging because many baby boomers are leaving health professions, but fewer are coming. “That means we’re heading towards a bottleneck. That’s why we believe that people will be open to offers outside of traditional practices.”
dm has recently been testing health services such as skin and blood analyzes as well as eye screenings in selected branches, which has met with criticism from medical associations. There are also now self-tests available, for example for vitamin D and iron. A separate online pharmacy for over-the-counter medications such as painkillers is also set to launch this year.
Werner criticized “preservation of existing rights” and resistance to innovations in Germany. In the health sector, for example, every suggestion is presented as absurd, even though everyone can see the problems.
Sales increased significantly
The company is experimenting in the segment without any time pressure, said the CEO. There’s a lot of potential there. “We’ll see how big it is,” said Werner, also with a view to the chain’s sales.
This rose again in the 2024/25 financial year (until September 30th) – across Europe to almost 19.2 billion euros and of that in Germany to around 13.3 billion euros. But growth has been declining over the past three years, most recently amounting to 6.5 percent in Germany and 8.2 percent for the entire group. The number of employees rose by more than 4,000 to 93,426 within a year, a good two thirds of them in Germany.
More than two million customers every day
According to information, an average of around 2.2 million people in this country shop at dm every day. The number of branches in this country grew by 23 to 2,154 after new openings and closings.
1,847 pick-up stations are intended to simplify shopping. Since this year, dm has also been testing the use of so-called 24/7 pickup stations at six locations so that customers can access the goods they have ordered even outside of store opening hours. The “Home & Living” range and the own brand “dm home” for household items and decor were also new additions in the past financial year.
dpa
Source: Stern
