Uniphar flags profit growth for first half of the year

In a trading update for the first half of the year, Uniphar said its pharma division delivered double-digit organic gross profit growth.

The group operates four major Irish pharmacy chains – Life, Allcare, Hickey’s and McCauley – as well as major divisions that service the wholesale sector and pharmaceutical and medical technology arms here and internationally.

Commenting on the first half of trade, Uniphar Group chief executive Ger Rabbette said the business is confident of reaching a €200m Ebitda target by 2028, with at least 80pc of growth being organic.

“Uniphar has had a strong first half, achieving significant organic gross profit growth. We expect to continue this progress into the second half and meet our growth objectives for each of our three divisions for the full year,” he said.

In terms of the outlook for the rest of the year, Uniphar said it entered the second half of this year with strong trading momentum and that declining interest rates favourably impacting finance costs will be a tailwind to current year expectations.

The group said it is managing an active pipeline of acquisition opportunities. Net bank debt/Ebitda was 1.9x at the end of June 2025.

A €35m share buyback programme was completed during the first half of the year.

Shares in Uniphar rose on Tuesday to reach £3.36 each in London – not far off its high for the year of £3.46 a share, seen in June.

The shares trade in London’s AIM and Dublin’s Euronext and the business has a market capitalisation of just under €1bn.

The unaudited half-year update will be followed up with publication of interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2025, on September 2.

Uniphar is among a list of home-grown Irish multinational companies that Enterprise Minister Peter Burke has held meetings with in recent weeks as he looks to assess the effects on a rage of sectors of the Trump administration’s tariff policy and the impact on the US economy and other markets.