Sales and Income Decline at Ares-Serono

Ares-Serono of Switzerland was hit hard by the health care reforms in Italy in the first nine months of 1994. The group said that sales were $464.3 million, down 3.7%. However, excluding Italy, sales grew 22.9%. In the third quarter of 1994 sales amounted to $149.6 million, marginally down from $150.6 million a year earlier.

There was strong sales growth in most of the group's major markets in the nine-month period. In the USA sales were ahead 35%, they advanced 46% in Latin America, 59% in Japan, and 76% in the Nordic countries. In Italy there was a decline in sales of 56%.

These changes have resulted in a more balanced distribution of sales within the group's main markets, according to Ares-Serono. The changes in distribution of sales in the nine-month periods of 1994 and 1993 are as follows: