Drug wholesaler and retailer Alliance Unichem is to change its
corporate branding.
The change reflects last year’s merger between British company Unichem
and Alliance Sante of Italy.
Alliance Unichem, which has a third of the UK market in drug
wholesaling, appointed marketing agency Interfocus last May to help
design a new company brand for its 36,000 outlets across Europe. Plans
are also being discussed for the branding of Unichem’s other pharmacy
chain, Moss Chemists, which has 550 stores in the UK.
In January 1997 Unichem, which has outlets in the UK, France, Italy,
Spain, Portugal and Morocco, tried to take over the 920-strong Lloyds
Chemists, but failed when German pharmaceutical retailer Gehe snatched
it from under its nose for pounds 680m.
In March Gehe announced that it was spending pounds 70m over the next
three years (Marketing, March 12) on rebranding all 1400 Lloyds Pharmacy
stores, and started looking for an agency to help strengthen its brand.
The main idea behind the rebranding was to compete effectively against
market leader Boots. The company also talked about relaunching own-label
lines at a lower price than mainstream brands.
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