Celltrion Group Chairman Seo Jung-jin. [Celltrion]
Celltrion Group Chairman Seo Jung-jin. [Celltrion]

Celltrion Group Chairman Seo Jung-jin will spend the entire month of August on an extensive overseas field tour to accelerate the company's global earnings growth in the second half of the year. Forgoing his summer vacation, Seo plans to visit subsidiaries across Europe, North America and Asia to drive second-half sales and revenue targets to their highest possible execution.

According to Celltrion Group, Seo will depart for Paris on Aug. 10 and travel through key countries across Europe before moving on to subsidiaries in the United States, Canada and Japan, where he will personally review second-half sales and revenue plans on the ground.

The trip goes beyond a routine overseas subsidiary tour. Seo intends to examine market conditions by region, product-level sales performance, country-by-country tender and supply schedules, and plans to expand the rollout of follow-on products into additional markets. He will also make immediate decisions on any bottlenecks or operational difficulties that arise in the field.

A particular focus will be on maximizing synergies with recently acquired local entities — French healthcare company Gifrer and Swiss retail pharmaceutical company iQone — and reviewing their sales strategies. On top of the existing direct-sales network centered on hospitals and public procurement, Celltrion plans to aggressively expand its direct pharmacy network across Europe, strengthening its presence in both of the pharmaceutical sector's core distribution channels at the same time.

Seo will also visit frontline overseas sales staff who have been working in difficult conditions amid prolonged extreme heat and unusual weather. He plans to hear employees out directly, arrange immediate support measures and foster open communication to build a solid foundation for second-half sales growth.

The CEO's hands-on approach — connecting market intelligence gathered through the global direct-sales network to top-level decision-making in real time — amounts to an all-out strategy to respond nimbly to supply chain shifts in the global pharmaceutical market and consolidate the company's earnings growth momentum.

Celltrion earlier reported record first-half earnings, with sales of 2.54 trillion won ($1.78 billion) and operating profit of 773.7 billion won — up 40.8 percent and 97.4 percent, respectively, from the same period a year earlier. Stable sales of existing products were complemented by high-margin new products, including Remsima SC, which together accounted for 65 percent of total sales and drove the earnings surge.

In the second half, large-scale public tender supply volumes from major European countries are expected to kick in, with additional demand from year-end pharmaceutical inventory restocking at medical institutions. Celltrion plans to sustain its strong first-half growth trajectory through the second half by carefully analyzing seasonal demand patterns and competitive dynamics in each market.

"The chairman will personally lead the field operations review throughout August to strengthen second-half sales," a Celltrion official said. "We will move quickly on key local priorities, including expanding the direct pharmacy network, to maintain solid earnings growth in the second half."


silverpaper@heraldcorp.com