Celesio, the German wholesale and retail pharmacy group, has reported a 15 per cent uplift in Irish sales for the first half of the year. The increase, to €202.5 million, owed much to an improved performance from Cahill May Roberts, the company's Irish wholesale business.

Cahill May Roberts, which supplies to hospitals and pharmacies, had sales of €144.7 million over the first half, up 18.3 per cent on the same period of 2005.

Celesio does not break out profits for its Irish businesses, but the company noted that trade with both hospitals and independent pharmacies had "developed very well" over the period to the end of June.

Cahill May Roberts has won a number of new contracts over the past few months, including a distribution deal for Sanofi-Aventis.

In its Irish pharmacy business, Unicare, the group recorded revenues of €57.8 million for the first six months, marking a 6.2 per cent annual increase.

"In Ireland market growth is very strong," the firm noted.

The half-year performance was delivered from 59 pharmacies, a number which Celesio judges to be too small for its long-term needs in the Republic.

The firm restated its conviction that "the optimum size for a pharmacy chain has not yet been reached in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium".

It added: "Celesio will therefore be concentrating on expanding the pharmacies presence in these countries."

The company has shied away in the past from specifying the optimum number of pharmacies for the competitive Irish market, but observers in the sector believe it wants to surpass 100 outlets within five to seven years. The company most recently opened a new Irish shop in January.

"Thanks to its customer-oriented organisation Unicare Pharmacy showed significant growth despite a number of new competing pharmacies being opened in Ireland," Celesio noted.

The overall Celesio group, which operates in 13 European countries, posted a 10 per cent increase in first-half profits, helped by a strong performance from its pharmacy division.

The company warned that conditions would be tougher over the second half but reiterated its expectation that pretax profits would expand faster than sales this year.

Pretax profits for the first half rose to €291.4 million from €264.6 million a year earlier.

Sales climbed by 5.5 per cent to €10.6 billion.