Page 59 - RPA Magazine December 2020
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ANNUAL REPORT 57 Most categories have declined in the past 12 months, compared to the previous year, exacerbated by panic-buying then ongoing uncertainty and low communicable infection rates due to low social interaction. Urinary and Reproductive Care -5.5% Habit Treatment 8.6% Tests and Measuring Instruments 17.3% Eye Care 3.1% Unisex Beauty Products -9.2% Personal Hygiene 30.6% Hair Products -2.9% Baby Foods -27.8% -1.7% -8.2% -7.9% -3.2% Previous 12 months Last 12 months -2.6% $800 Skin Treatment Beauty Products for Women Fragrances Digestive and Other Intestinal Products Pain Relief Vitamins, Minerals and Nutritional Cough cold and Other Respiratory Products Figure 5. Consumer health category growth 2019 v 2020 -2.4% -8.6% $0 $400 Spikes caused by no-touch thermometers and hand sanitiser, respectively In the pain category, osteoarthritis medicines such as Apohealth Osteo Relief and Osteomol took most of the growth in this area, collectively growing $7.7 million. In contrast, the top three joint relief treatments containing glucosamine, fell $17.6 million. The baby category’s previous year highs have been driven by milk formula. In recent times, this has become a daigou casualty as well, while direct export also drives down ex-pharmacy sales, leading to a 27.8 per cent downturn in category value. Somewhat bizarrely, a daigou has been quoted as saying that Chinese consumers are turning to domestic products for fear of contracting Covid through imported products (Xiao, 2020). Digestive products have also experienced a sharp decline, driven by an almost halving in antidiarrhoeals most likely caused by less travel and local infections, again due to social distancing and other precautions, as well as declines in liver remedies and laxatives. In contrast, heartburn treatments have increased by almost 26 per cent in the same period. This may be directly related to more stringent prescribing restrictions placed on proton pump inhibitors in May 2019, resulting in more patients seeking symptomatic relief with OTC products (NPS MedicineWise, 2019). Another category that has enjoyed some growth is beauty products, likely as a result of self-care replacing health, beauty and department store sales. Retail pharmacy performance dependent on location during lockdowns Prescription volumes for airport and regional medical centre pharmacies saw the most significant falls across most metrics. At the same time, small shopping centres in both metro and regional areas enjoyed the greatest increases in script volume. Also, medical centres in regional areas benefited overall through retail sales, while experiencing a drop in prescription volumes. Other notable performances were from regional small shopping centres and regional shopping centres, both of which saw significant increases in over- the-counter sales transaction counts and overall retail sales. Pharmacies on high streets tended to perform well across most metrics, especially Metro Street pharmacies, which experienced significant increases in the number of transactions, retail sales and gross margins. They also saw moderate increases in prescription volumes. Unsurprisingly, shopping centre pharmacies underperformed, especially in metro areas, due to lower traffic volumes through major shopping centres during the peak of Covid lockdowns. Medical centres underperformed in most categories in the metro areas. In regional areas, however, these were some of the most robust performers. 1.(Brown, et al., 2020) Prescription Volumes Retail Sales Regional Small Shopping Centres, Medical Centres, Metro Streets Airports and Metro Medical Centres Retail Margin Regional Medical Centres and Shopping Centres Basket Size Airports and Regional Small Shopping Centres Basket Value All Except Airports Airports Transactions Regional Small Shopping Centres and Metro Streets All Other Metro and Regional Small Shopping Centres Airports and Regional Medical Centres Airports and Regional Small Shopping Centres Regional Medical Centres and Metro Streets RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • DEC 2020
