A sales forecast

Anke Reigl Is everyone ready ? Good, then I’ll begin. Ok ... Well, based on average growth in sales over the last two years and given the relatively stable state of the market at the moment as far as competition is concerned, we’re forecasting a fairly modest increase in the first quarter, about 2to 3%. We expect this to rise to between 7and 10% in the second and third quarters, after the launch of the new slow - release version of the drug. Marketing tells me - thanks, Werner for your help with this ...

Werner You’re welcome.

Anke Reigl ... That demand for this version is strong and should be reflected in sales more or less immediately. So that’s the basic picture. There are just a couple of monthly variations to this trend which I’ll explain now

If you look at the graph, you’ll see that in March last year sales wet up quite sharply and that the figure predicted for this year is much lower. The reason for this is that Bayer had distribution problems and weren’t able to supply the required quantities to their customers. We were fortunate, because we were carting extra stock and were fortunate, because we were carrying extra stock and were able to take advantage of the situation. I think it’s worth nothing that disruptions in the supply chain can affect anyone and it really does pay for us to hold a reasonable amount of stock in reserve for events like these.

As you know, sales generally decline in April and Mat - it’s just a seasonal factor - bur as I already mentioned, the launch of the new version this year is expected to boost them considerably, especially in April directly after the campaign. They’ll drop back a little after that, but in July we’ll have the usual early summer phenomenon when distributors ...