Famar sets up UK office
Pharmaceutical and healthcare company Famar said yesterday it has set up a London office to amalgamate a string of acquisitions acquired in the last four years. Famar, a subsidiary of the supermarket chain and cosmetics retailer Marinopoulos Group, also said it had appointed a chief executive officer and chief financial officer. The company said the London office will integrate pharmaceutical operations in several European countries in a bid to improve effectiveness. Seeking to expand its European client base, in 1999 it embarked on a string of acquisitions in the Netherlands, Italy and France. The result was a network of production sites in four countries, including Greece. It also boosted Famar’s consolidated annual production capacity in pharmaceutical products to 500 million units. The company’s new chief executive officer is Maurice Wolridge, a former vice president of manufacturing for US pharmaceuticals group Pfizer. He was also previously a partner in Global Healthcare Partners, and chief executive officer of NextPharma Technologies, a portfolio company of Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette Merchant Banking Fund II. Mark Keatley, Famar’s new chief financial officer, served in the same post at Ardana Bioscience. Prior to that, he was chief financial officer at Ashanti Goldfields Company for six years. He also did a stint as divisional manager at the International Finance Corporation. The Marinopoulos Group is involved in food distribution, maxi-discount and cosmetics retailing. It has a joint venture with French supermarket giant Carrefour in the retail food market in Greece. In cosmetic retailing, its partner is Sephora, a subsidiary of French luxury good retailer LVMH. It also owns the franchise rights to Marks and Spencer in Greece.
