The FINANCIAL — “Health and beauty are two indivisible ideas. As our outlook on life we are focused on developing this direction in Georgia,” David Kiladze, Director of Pharmaceutical Company GPC, told the FINANCIAL. GPC was the first pharmaceutical company that started establishing an American system of pharmacies in Georgia. As Mr. Kiladze mentions, GPC broke the stereotype of chemists formed during the Soviet period, when people entered the chemist only for medicine.
GPC started its work in the years 1998-99. It was a hard time and further development was connected with lots of difficulties, but despite it we succeeded in the development of our enterprise. Presently GPC is a place where customers are offered pharmaceutical, para-pharmaceutical products, medicaments, sold over-the-counter drugs and prescription drugs, cosmetic products, mass market cosmetics, baby products and other things. There is a French word ‘bienheureux’, which means ‘well being’. Our pharmacy entails the philosophy of well being and is not a supporter of sick people. GPC started developing its beauty line before others because we felt the need for it more than the others. Our goal is choosing exactly what we are offering to our customers. We know how to make the right choice.
Q. GPC does not limit its activities to the import of medicines, but also offers the local market high quality baby care and personal hygiene products; nutritional supplements, make up, and cosmetics. What are the criteria, with the help of which you decide which brand to import?
A. While choosing the brand, our main criterion is time. Everything that has a long expiry time is welcome. Time is the major examiner. GPC offers all the brands which are well experienced by the whole world. There are cosmetics as treatment, there are also decorative cosmetic, for spending an evening out. Meanwhile cosmetics are a well accepted way of life. We are focused on encouraging this philosophy. In Europe the direction of health care was started in the 17th-18th centuries. It was at that time that the demand for perfume and bohemian life appeared. Currently, GPC is helping Georgians to understand these rules.
Q. One of the main novelties of the company GPC is the wide distribution of medical cosmetics in the pharmacy’s net. In this direction the first partner of “GPC” is the French laboratory VICHY, whose products are sold only in pharmacies worldwide. What is the advantage of selling cosmetic goods in a chemist?
A. A pharmacy is a well spread concept, mainly in the USA. A pharmacy is a place symbolizing wellbeing rather than just a place you go to when you are ill. Accordingly cosmetics are as much a part of the pharmacy’s inventory as the medicine it supplies.
Q. GPC is an importer of such well-known international brands as Vichy, Phyto, La Roche-Posay. Can you tell us in more detail, what is the advantage of the above mentioned brands and why should customers use them?
A. GPC promotes the lines of cosmetics of Loreal, Vichy, La Roche-Posay – all the brands of Pier Fabric. Pier Fabric is one of the most popular dermatological-cosmetic groups in France. In the pharmacies of GPC it is also presents the brands of Klorane, Galena and Avennik . All the above mentioned names are places where large reserves of thermal water or huge amounts of natural chemical ingredients exist. Another very important direction of our chain is Phyto. The advantage of Phyto products is that they are made of ecologically clean botanical products. Phyto is really the best way to look after your hair.
Q. The highest value of current cosmetic brands is the effective natural ingredients they are composed of. Meanwhile such products are less demanded by Georgians. Do you think that the only reason for this is the relatively low purchasing capacity of the general population?
A. In Europe people are more educated, more cynical and so rarely become the victims of ads persuasiveness. They choose products because of their alluring composition and not their advertisement. The different approach of Georgians’ mentality was formed during the 70s during the Soviet period. Two generations were brought up with this thinking. Currently our generation is changing and integrating with Europe. People living in the soviet period had no information about international brands. The present backwardness is the result of the country’s past. Vichy is not a cheap brand. We realize that people first of all depend on their solvency ability. For middle and low-income people, there exist mass-market products. This gives the opportunity to satisfy demands on an elementary level. Increase of the solvency ability of our customers will of course raise the demand for our products and the knowledge of society.
Q. Abroad cosmetic companies are mostly focused on supporting women’s health awards. Vichy (the #1 skincare brand in Europe), will be hosting a Skin Wellness event. Have you ever arranged such activities? And how important are such encouraging steps for people?
A. In the net GPC’s pharmacies we frequently arrange cabinets for skin diagnostic and consultations. We are focused on developing this direction. GPC not only gives advice but also gives the opportunity of treatment. We have a plan, technological equipment, human resources and this will be a well-positioned direction in the chain of GPC. Our goal is to explain the positive sense of products to our customers. In order to explain them well, such events are very important.
Q. Your employees can be considered the face of your company and main advertisers of your products. Are you focused on supplying your staff with ecologically clean products and how important is their appearance when hiring?
A. Our main demand towards our staff is the products they offer to the customers. Our employees need to look well to reassure customers in the utility and efficiency of the products. Employees should look well to gain the trust of customers. Our employees always use different discounts in our stores. Management of the company is focused on supplying them with our high quality products.
Q. From the long list of the presents that GPC raffles, one of them is a month’s subscription to the swimming pool. Supporting healthy lifestyle is very important for people. How often do you participate in such activities?
A. Our gift basket is always full of packages that help to achieve a healthy lifestyle.
Q. Not long ago Mr. Kiladze said that each person must begin to care about their health when s/he is healthy. How are you trying to implement this tendency in Georgian society and adapt it to the population?
A. The main issue of our work is notification of customers. It is in our interests to support the increasingly progressive thinking of our customers. Only a healthy thinker can distinguish true quality products from bad ones. When a person is well informed, he will avoid the peril of becoming a victim of ads. If a person is caring about his health, then that means that he has concrete motivation which is good. We need a progressive thinking people, which know their problem and can make a choice about what product to choose themselves.
Q. What distinguishes GPC’s pharmacies from its competitors’ ones?
A. GPC differs from its competitor pharmacies in several criteria. Our main advantage is that we are the authors of all innovative projects. GPC is focused on supplying customer’s interests more than others and we are closer to the demands of the populations. It is needless to say that everyone wants to keep well. As for society working on promoting healthy living, they should supply these demands. GPC absolutely satisfies customers’ demand. GPC always knows perfectly what to offer to its customers. We can not afford to buy cheap. Accordingly, we are always trying to show the right direction to our clients. Our partners are also following our direction, but we have the advantage of being pioneers. Lots of people have conquered Everest, but not all their names have been recorded in the history books, whereas everyone remembers Edmund Hillary.
Q. Are the famous French brands Vichy, Larose Cose Cosmetics, Galenic and Klorane, imported to Georgia by GPC, available in other company’s pharmacies?
A. The world brands that GPC offers to its customers are also available in different pharmacies, but are not represented so widely or completely. The new products first of all arrive in the stores of GPC and later in our competitors’.
Q. Who do you think should encourage people to have a healthy lifestyle and what is the share of pharmaceutical shops in this?
A. Healthy lifestyle promotion should be carried out by the whole of society. Everyone has their own share in society, pharmaceutical shops as well. Having a healthy life style is not only looking after yourself. A healthy life is healthy thinking, healthy relations. It is impossible to consider drug users in this light. This is a disease and if society accepts it as natural, then we can conclude that the society is diseased. Healthy thinking is a basis for everything. If you do not have a healthy mind, you cannot have a healthy body.
Q. What are your plans for the future, which innovative steps should customers expect from you?
A. We are planning to offer the world brand direction of Lerak to our customers from January 2010. Our staff has already been trained for this. Lerak is the top level of treating luxury cosmetics. It is a luxury production. Another brand is Neux . From the beginning of the year 2010 GPC will develop two directions: Loxitane and Lapovan . These are world chain brands where customers can find everything to make their lives comfortable. At first this product will be acceptable in the drugstores of GPC. Later, we’ll develop separate brand shops. Besides this, we will expand the line of the soap brand, Roger and Gallet. Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the most famous people who used the perfume of Roger and Gallet. The brands mentioned above are those which are important for the health of our bodies, and therefore lives, and so we are committed to providing them to society.
We have many serious plans for the future. From the end of 2009, we will start working on fulfilling our plans and will go on with them in 2010. Life with GPC is always interesting and full of novelties.
Written By Madona Gasanova
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