Fleury to gather 13 labs into a single brand
Valor Econômico
After a year and a half of study, Fleury has defined its growth strategy in the regions outside the State of São Paulo, where the brand is very well known. In other Brazilian States, the company of high standard diagnostic medicine is unknown and the purchasing power in the other regions tends to be smaller compared to customer in São Paulo.
A few years ago, Fleury made an attempt to enter Rio and Brasilia, but the expansion was timid, with only one unit in each of the cities. With the experience in the backpack, the company has now put up a national strategy. Fleury will unify 13 labs into a single brand, whose name has not been revealed and will be announced to the market at the end of May. "The idea is to cater to the public of classes B and C with the new brand, and it will be under the umbrella of Fleury", said Omar Hauache, new President of Fleury, who took office three weeks ago.
The new brand of the Fleury group in the market with nearly 100 units spread out through São Paulo, Bahia, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rio and Rio Grande do Sul. The São Paulo brands Fleury and Campana, the Rio Grande do Sul Weinmann, the Rio de Janeiro Lab's and the Bahia Diagnosson will be maintained. "Those labs have strong tradition in their respective regions. That is the reason we will preserve those names", explained Hauache. In the case, the laboratories Criesp, Lego, URP, Biesp and Di (São Paulo), Qualitech (Bahia), Champagnat (Paraná), Paulo Loureiro (Pernambuco), Helion Póvoa, Daflon, Maiolino and Centro de Mastologia (Rio) and Faillace (Rio Grande do Sul) will have their names changed to the new brand. All those regional laboratories were acquired in the past nine years by the Fleury group that has made a total of 25 acquisitions throughout the period.
Today, the external laboratory units (located outside hospitals) intended for the public of classes B and C represent nearly 30% of the gross earnings of the company, which last year totaled R$ 853.5 million (US$ 484.9 million). Among the acquisitions, it is important to stand out the purchase of the Rio de Janeiro Lab's for R$ 1 billion (US$ 568.2 million) that belonged to the D'or hospital chain. "Even with the acquisition of Lab's we continue with the project of new acquisitions. With the wrapping up of the purchase of Lab's out cash will be negative, but it is a debt that represents only once the ebitda and it is a long-term debt", says the Executive.