Of every € 100 that pharmacies took in during 2024, € 66.60 went on purchasing what they sold. After staff, other costs and depreciation, € 5.20 was left as operating result. That is shown by CBS figures for all pharmacies together.
CBS is Statistics Netherlands. The figures are an average across the whole sector, not a standard for your pharmacy. A pharmacy with many expensive medicines will naturally have a higher purchasing percentage.
In short
- CBS 2024 for pharmacies: purchasing 66.6% of revenue, staff 17.7%, other costs 8.0%, depreciation 2.5% and operating result 5.2%.
- Purchasing rose from 62.7% of revenue in 2021 to 66.6% in 2024. The result fluctuated between 4.7% and 5.7%.
- With a result of about 5%, each percentage point of more expensive purchasing costs about a fifth of the profit. Rates are free and are agreed with insurers, without indexation by the NZa.
In this article
How big is a pharmacy's margin?
Small. In 2024 pharmacies together had revenue of € 7,125 million. The cost of sales was € 4,748 million, staff costs € 1,263 million, other operating costs € 568 million and depreciation € 177 million. The operating result was € 369 million, 5.2% of revenue (CBS, table 81156ned, sector 4773 Pharmacies, 2024).
The cost of sales is what you paid for the medicines and products you sold. The operating result is what remains after all operating costs, before interest and tax.
That makes a pharmacy above all a trading business. Two thirds of revenue goes straight on to the supplier. What you add yourself lies in the remaining € 33.40 per € 100, and from that you pay staff, rent, systems and depreciation.
How has the margin changed since 2021?
Purchasing takes up an ever larger share of revenue. In 2021 it was 62.7%, in 2022 64.3%, in 2023 63.7% and in 2024 66.6%. The operating result in those years was 4.7%, 5.2%, 5.7% and 5.2% of revenue (CBS, table 81156ned).
Revenue grew in those years from € 4,922 million to € 7,125 million. Purchasing grew faster: from € 3,087 million to € 4,748 million. The CBS figures do not show why. They also count all pharmacies together, large and small.
The share of staff actually fell. In 2021 it was 21.0% of revenue, in 2024 17.7%. The number of people working stayed roughly the same: 29,700 in 2021 and 30,200 in 2024 (CBS, table 81156ned). Revenue per person therefore rose, but most of that growth passed straight on to purchasing.
Why can't a pharmacy simply raise its prices?
Because rates are agreed with the health insurers. In 2021 the NZa wrote that in community pharmacy care there are free prices, and that rates come about through agreements between health insurers and providers. Almost all pharmacies have a contract (NZa, Exploratory study on access to community pharmacy care (in Dutch), 6 July 2021).
The NZa does not index those free rates. If wages or other costs rise, you have to recover that yourself in negotiations with insurers. According to the study, on 1 January 2021, 84% of the 2,005 pharmacies were linked to a chain or franchise (NZa, 2021).
Day-to-day work also takes time that is not always paid separately. In a national study of 275 Dutch pharmacies, 5.5% of all prescriptions were modified. For 2.4% of prescriptions it concerned a logistical problem. Of those, 40.9% involved a medicine that was unavailable and 33.2% a substitution required by reimbursement policy (Van Loon et al., 2020).
What does one per cent more expensive purchasing do to your profit?
At the CBS proportions, each extra percentage point of purchasing costs about a fifth of the result. On € 100 of revenue the result is € 5.20. If purchasing rises from € 66.60 to € 67.60, € 4.20 remains: 19% less.
Purchasing is also stock. What you buy and have not yet sold sits on the balance sheet as stock and is money you have already spent. Larger stock at the same turnover means less money in the bank. So include purchasing and stock in your cash flow forecast. How to make it reliable is explained in how reliable is a cash flow forecast.
May you keep discounts and bonuses on purchases?
Yes. The Medicines Act prohibits inducements to healthcare professionals, but makes an exception for discounts and bonuses relating to the purchase of medicines (Medicines Act, article 94(d)). An inducement is giving money, services or goods to promote the prescribing, dispensing or use of a medicine.
Record purchasing agreements in writing and book discounts and bonuses in the right period. A bonus paid out only after year end belongs to the purchases of the year it relates to. Otherwise your monthly margin looks worse or better than it really is.
What do you manage when the margin is this narrow?
On three things: the purchase price, the reimbursement under the contract and staff costs. Staff were 17.7% of revenue in 2024, the second-largest cost (CBS). You can work out what an employee costs under the Pharmacies cao with the calculator for the cost of an employee under the Pharmacies cao.
- Calculate your purchasing percentage and your result as a percentage of revenue every month, and compare with the year before.
- Record per insurer what the contract yields per service, and take that into the negotiations.
- Keep VAT properly separated. Medicines and pharmacists' administration fees fall under 9% (Belastingdienst, VAT rate for medicines and aids (in Dutch)). Products outside that, such as personal care products, fall under the standard rate of 21%.
Sources
- CBS (Statistics Netherlands), Business economy, labour and financial data, by sector, SBI 2008, table 81156ned, sector 4773 Pharmacies, 2021 to 2024, modified 24 April 2026. cbs.nl
- NZa, Exploratory study on access to community pharmacy care, 6 July 2021 (in Dutch). puc.overheid.nl
- Medicines Act (Geneesmiddelenwet), article 94 (in Dutch). wetten.overheid.nl
- Belastingdienst, VAT rate for medicines and aids (in Dutch), accessed 1 November 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Van Loon, E., Borgsteede, S. D., Baas, G., Kruijtbosch, M., Buurma, H., De Smet, P. A. G. M., Egberts, T. C. G. & Bouvy, M. L. (2020). Nature and frequency of prescription modifications in community pharmacies: A nationwide study in the Netherlands. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 87(3), 1455-1465. doi.org