Austrian Post has invested in a start-up German pharmaceuticals wholesaler that is promising lowerprices for pharmacies and will offer daily deliveries by trans-o-flex, the group’s German-based
logistics subsidiary.The Austrian postal group confirmed today that it is the lead investor in ‘AEP direkt’ whoseother financial backers include healthcare industry investors and private investors. Reutersreported that Austrian Post has taken a 40 per cent stake in the company.
Pharmaceutical logistics is a core business activity for trans-o-flex and the group wantedto deepen its presence in this market, Austrian Post explained. Together with investors it haddeveloped a completely new “lean concept” for pharmaceuticals wholesaling in a market that hadbecome intransparent and complex for chemists, especially in term of price discounts.
The new company AEP direkt will offer a full product range to German chemists and operate asimple business model. It will avoid costly sales structures and thus pass on higher discounts toall chemists on an equal and transparent basis.
AEP, with just 50 staff, will operate from one single warehouse at Alzenau in CentralGermany, where trans-o-flex last year opened its own logistics warehouse. It will offer anationwide delivery service from the fourth quarter of this year onwards with deliveries made everymorning by the 2,500 trans-o-flex drivers.
“Healthcare is a strongly growing market. So together with German and Austrian industryexperts we decided to launch a new service offering in this important market. This very interestingbusiness model is new and unique, and will ideally complement our business in Germany,” saidAustrian Post CEO Georg Pölzl.
Peter Umundum, head of Parcels & Logistics, added: “Our subsidiary trans-o-flex willsupport the market entry of its new customer AEP direkt with its logistics expertise. Just likemany other companies, AEP direkt is deliberately relying on the experience and service portfolio oftrans-o-flex, which is the market leader for deliveries to pharmacies.”
