Philips to tap into Romania's healthcare industry potential

Gorjan Lalchevski, country manager of Philips Romania, says the company sees growth potential for its healthcare business in working with both the public and the private sector as industry spending is expected to grow.

What are your business lines in Romania and where do you see the growth areas?

Philips is present in Romania with all three of our sectors: healthcare, lighting and consumer lifestyle. We have different go-to-market strategies in Romania, but all three are present. Our business is currently disproportionately weighted towards lighting and consumer lifestyle and we expect the healthcare side to show big growth potential in the next two, three, four years to come. This will be fueled ideally by having a national healthcare strategy that chooses to invest in what area is important for Romanian healthcare. Romania still needs to catch up with the EU overall in terms of equipment and early diagnosis.

We have roughly 70-100 employees in Romania. We also have a factory in Orastie – an important supplier for Saeco espresso machines, which has between 500 and 1,000 employees. Around 10 percent of Philips’ CEE sales come from Romania.

Does your healthcare line address both the public and private sector?

We work with both sectors. There is potential for us to grow in both of them. Public spending in Romania was until very recently higher than the private figure. With the entrance of many private hospitals there is a lot of business potential there.

Are you planning new investments locally next year?

We never rule out the opportunity of investing where we believe there will be growth. It really depends on what happens with the economy in Europe and how Romania performs versus its neighboring countries. If we look at the GDP forecast today, Romania is definitely an interesting market and will remain one. I believe that we have the biggest potential for growth for healthcare in Romania.

ovidiu.posirca@business-review.ro