Pharmacy to buy milk powder may not save money

The “pharmacy counter sales” model that the nine national ministries and commissions jointly issued this year is currently entering the pilot phase. It is reported that the first batch of pilot milk powder brands totaled 12, including Wyeth, Nestle, Mead Johnson, Dumex and Abbott, 5 “foreign milk powder” and 7 domestic brands such as Yili and Mengniu. The pharmacy selling baby milk powder needs to obtain formula milk circulation permit from the industrial and commercial department before it can set up counters to sell infant formula milk products.

People in the industry believe that the price of pharmacies selling milk powder will not be cheap, and that manufacturers will not impact existing channels by creating a new channel.

In fact, Guangdong has pharmacies and milk powder companies trying this new sales model. Earlier this year, Guangzhou Heshengyuan signed a cooperation agreement with the pharmacy of the ordinary people. Heshengyuan’s infant milk powder is sold in the pharmacies of ordinary people.

“The pharmacy sells milk powder. I am not very optimistic.” A person in charge of an infant milk powder company that represents a foreign brand in China said that the proportion of pharmacy channels is almost negligible in the sales channels of infant milk powder. Later, as a new channel It remains to be seen how large the proportion is. According to this source, the profits of pharmacies selling health products are greater than selling milk powder. Therefore, from this perspective, pharmacies may not have the incentive to continue to expand sales of milk powder.

Many people in the industry and dairy products think that pharmacy sales of milk powder as a new channel is feasible. However, in the pharmacy sales of milk powder consumers may not be cheap, "pharmacy is also one of the channels, there are some chain pharmacies, the same channel fees, annual holiday promotion fees, channel costs, distribution costs are not low. Moreover, companies in order to stabilize its The product price system will not reduce the prices of products sold in the pharmacy channel, otherwise it will impact other channels."

Senior dairy analyst Song Liang believes that although the simplification of the channel will make milk powder cheaper, but “if the milk powder is sold cheaper than the supermarket, the original channel will shrink, this is the milk powder companies do not want to see.” He also pointed out that According to the requirements of the food and drug administration department, the current area of ​​pharmacies selling non-pharmaceutical products should not exceed 30%, that is, a pharmacy can only put two or three counters or about 10 varieties of powdered milk, and the number of each type can be put. not much.