Ann: Trading Update, page-70

If I owned a Terry White pharmacy I would be disappointed that EBOS/Symbion have decided to take on the future CW supply contract. I would love to know what the terms on offer are compared with their own groups. I think it was a great opportunity for all the existing major CSO wholesalers to say you are competing with our own groups and we cannot offer better terms than exist for them. Although this may have given DHL an opportunity to take on the CW business I don't think that would still provide the critical mass or profitability for DHL to want to become a full line CSO wholesaler with the attached stringent service obligations.

Having said that I would be guessing the terms Symbion have offered would not be much different to what Sigma or API would have put on the table. The CW bosses would not have liked that Sigma had the balls to stand up to their shenanigans and threatened legal action and it would have been unlikely to do a deal with them in the end anyway.

On going goodwill with suppliers who work hard to provide them with excellent service is not in the CW vocabulary. They are ruthlessly smart operators and this is why they have been so successful so far.