Perrigo Company | Introduction
Introduction
515 Eastern Avenue
Allegan, Michigan 49010-9070
U.S.A.
Telephone: (269) 673-8451
Toll Free: (800) 253-3606
Fax: (269) 673-7535
Web site: http://www.perrigo.com
Public Company
Incorporated: 1892
Employees: 3,983
Sales: $826.0 million (2003)
Stock Exchanges: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: PRGO
NAIC: 325412 Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing; 325413 In-Vitro Diagnostic Substance Manufacturing
Perrigo Company is the largest manufacturer of over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals and nutritional products for store brands in the United States. The company estimates that it holds more than 50 percent of the store brand market. Perrigo produces more than 30 billion pills per year and manufactures about 1,200 products. Most of these are pharmaceuticals—such as analgesics, cough and cold remedies, and gastrointestinal and feminine hygiene products—which account for about four-fifths of the company's sales. Perrigo ranks as the largest producer of aspirin in the United States. The remaining 20 percent of revenues come from the sale of nutritional products, including vitamins and nutritional supplements and drinks. Perrigo supplies 300 different retailers with these products under the retailer's own label so that they can be promoted as house brands. These customers include major drugstore chains (CVS, Eckerd, Walgreens), grocery chains (Albertson's, Kroger, Safeway), mass discounters (Kmart, Target, Wal-Mart), and major wholesalers (McKesson, Supervalu). Perhaps not surprisingly, the largest Perrigo customer by far is retailing giant Wal-Mart, which accounted for 27 percent of net sales for fiscal 2003. The company also markets certain products under its own brand name, Good Sense, although such products account for only a small percentage of sales. Two non-U.S. subsidiaries generate a little more than 9 percent of revenues. Wrafton Laboratories Ltd. supplies store brand products to major grocery and drug retailers in the United Kingdom, while the Mexican firm Química y Farmacia, S.A. de C.V. produces mainly OTC and prescription pharmaceuticals for retail, wholesale, and government customers. Perrigo Company operates 11 manufacturing plants in Michigan, South Carolina, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Perrigo has enjoyed nearly continuous growth since the end of World War II. This growth can be partly attributed to the mass acceptance of generic and store brand pharmaceutical products.