Word: cardinale
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Cardinal's somewhat haphazard acquisition strategy proved difficult to manage, though. Cardinal started as a small Ohio food distributor in 1971, and eight years later, founding CEO Robert Walter moved the company into pharmaceuticals. Over the next two decades, he transformed the firm into a $75 billion conglomerate. "It was...
Walter stepped down in 2006, and soon after, it became clear that Cardinal's strategy wasn't sustainable. "The old Cardinal Health had so many different businesses, and they could never quite get them all moving in the right direction at the same time," says Lazard Capital market analyst Tom...
Even Cardinal's cash cow, its drug distribution, had begun to fall behind. Nearly half of the company's customers are national retail chains, including Walgreens and CVS Caremark. While these contracts assure a steady flow of capital, the margins on them are razor thin. Losing just one client could...
More important, these bulk customers don't use wholesalers to source generic products, which are expected to replace 80% of the revenue from brand-name drugs by 2015. "Generics mean slow top-line growth but are ultimately much more profitable for wholesalers," says Richard Close, an analyst for Jefferies & Co...
Enter Barrett. Before being hired to head Cardinal's drug-distribution business in early 2008, Barrett ran the North American operations of Teva, one of the world's largest generic-drug manufacturers. Barrett immediately focused on luring back independent-pharmacy customers, which are more profitable and rely on wholesalers for...