As first entrants in this difficult market - characterized by a particular legislative context, strong corporatist resistance, and a still laborious adoption of digital technology - these two groups have set out to dominate their sector, and have taken a lead that was, in principle, irrecoverable.

Zur Rose's results, announced earlier this year, had cast a shadow, with a 5.4% decline in consolidated revenues and very sharp declines in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

Shop Apotheke is doing better. The rate of growth, while slowing down significantly compared to previous years, will still reach 13% between 2021 and 2022. In addition, the group has 9.3 million "active" customers, compared to 7.8 million last year, and is consolidating its dominant position in Germany, which is currently the most lucrative market in Europe.

While the Dutch company is still well ahead of the Swiss company in terms of gross margins - almost double - neither of them is yet profitable. In other words, their growth is not yet profitable. Worse, they are increasing their losses.

Shop Apotheke burned €85 million in 2022 - a record in this respect. Its situation is not as alarming as that of Zur Rose, which has embarked on an aggressive and costly acquisition strategy, the added value of which is hard to see since growth is slowing down and its losses are increasing at an even more dramatic pace.

The Dutch group could also face a liquidity problem in the near future, with €67 million in cash held as collateral against €248 million in long-term debt. If operations do not improve, this financial leverage could penalize the company, especially on the eve of a rise in interest rates in Europe.

Shop Apotheke therefore remains dependent on future capital increases. There have been three successive capital increases in the last four years, all at valuations of around x1 of sales. The market context was nevertheless much more buoyant.

So the case remains highly speculative, without us necessarily being negative either - as it seems clear that digital adoption is going to progress in consumer pharma. A further slowdown in growth in the first half of 2023 would, however, put a damper on the optimists.

The group's executives seem to share this indecision as the commercial director and the operational director are selling their shares, while the CEO and the reference shareholder Frank Kohler - who controls a quarter of the capital - have on the contrary strengthened their positions in recent months.