SDM invigorated by its new status.(Brief Article)

WILLOWDALE, Ontario--Six months after an investment consortium led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. bought Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM), Canada's largest drug chain, from Imasco Ltd., the diversified Montreal-based holding company, SDM executives are relishing the retailer's stand-alone status.

"We had a great relationship with Imasco management," comments David Bloom, chairman and chief executive officer of the drug chain, "but we represented only 11% of corporate volume. Now we are a distinct, clearly defined business, and we stand or fall on our own efforts It is an exciting challenge."

Bloom has been in the chief executive officer's position at SDM for almost 20 years now, having assumed his present duties in 1981. In the turbulent world of Canadian retailing over the last two decades there are only one or two of his peers who can claim that durability. Bloom, however, shows no signs of flagging.

He says that in the first half of the current year the drug chain has exceeded both its sales and profit targets. However, a tactical benefit of the privatization process is that the company no longer has to disclose its financial results. Bloom notes management considered voluntarily releasing key figures, but it concluded the competitive benefits of keeping them private outweighed whatever public relations benefits their release might yield.

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