Galderma changes board and increased sales force
Valor Econômico 10/01/10
When the Colombian Juan Carlos Gaona left Argentina to hold the role of President of Galderma in Brazil, the headquarters had made what it wanted it very clear. Gaona was hired by the controllers, L'Oréal and Nestlé, to make the business leave the paralysis it found itself in the country. Rival of groups like GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis, the company was little known by the retail of pharmacies and drugstores. The sales force was minor the pace of growth was below the market. "There was much to be done and the made drastic changes", he says. "We could be much bigger than we were", says Gaona, after a year and a half ahead of the enterprise.Such perception is based on what Galderma has become. With operation in the area of medicines, and dermocosmetics and over-the-counter medicines, Galderma makes more than 40 brands like Cetaphil, Soapex and Dermotivin. In recent months, it went through a silent restructuring on the way it works. From the total of seven directors the company had in 2009, Gaona fired two and promoted four other who were already in the group. With that, from the total of ten executives in command the today (including the President), seven are "new blood", he says.
The changes continued in other areas of the corporation. Gaona has increased the sales force that visits drugstores and pharmacies. The number increased from only two employees to 70 people. In 2009, a new Director, Waldemir Carvalho, formerly from Johnson & Johnson, was hired just to boost the sales at such points of sales. At the same time, the launching of products was sped up (six new items this year, above the average of two to three in previous years) and the pace of production in the plant of Hortolândia (SP), the only one in the country and one of the three units of Galderma in the world, was increased. France and Canada also have plants.
Until 2008, Galderma in Brazil produced 1.5 million units a year. The volume reached two million in 2010 and it should get to six million in two years. In the investment plan disbursements of R$ 10 million (US$ 5.9 million) a year have already been approved, for the next three years, for the purchase of machinery and equipment. The resources come from the cash of the company.
The Brazilian subsidiary became the second largest operation of the group in 2009, overcoming France by a difference of € 1 million. The difference this year already gets to € 15 million. The earnings of the company in the country should reach little more than R$ 250 million (US$ 147.1 million) this year, an increase of 28% compared to 2009. In 2011, the expectation is that it reaches R$ 315 million (US$ 185.3 million) and, in the following year, R$ 350 million (US$ 205.9 million).