DRUG COMPANY TO RELOCATE FROM CAIRO TO CAPE

D&K Wholesale Drug Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, is on a growth pattern, and the company is looking at Cape Girardeau to share in its growth.

"D&K is looking for a location here," said Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Industrial Recruitment Association. "The company wants to relocate its Cairo, Ill., branch facility to this area."

The Cairo facility employs about 125 people.

"Many of these people are salesmen on the road and won't be affected by the move," said George Bray, D&K Cairo division president. "And we hope to retain all of our employees."

Some of the employees already live in or near Cape Girardeau, and others will move into the area or commute, said Bray.

"We want to construct our own building," said Bray, adding that the company will build an 85,000-square-foot facility. "We hope we can have everything in place to start construction by the end of the year."

D&K Wholesale Drug Inc., a full-service, regional, wholesale drug-distribution company, was founded in Cairo in 1965 as Delta Wholesale Drug Inc., with corporate headquarters at St. Louis. The company later became D&K Wholesale Drug Inc.

The company has acquired two additional drug distribution companies over the past year -- Northern Drug Co. Inc., of Duluth, Minn., and the Drug Distributors Unit of Fleming Companies, Inc., a Malone & Hyde, Inc. subsidiary in Memphis.

Northern Drug, founded in 1894, services about 200 customers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and operates as a division of D&K.

With the purchase of the Drug Distributors Unit, D&K expanded its relationship with Super D Drug Stores and positioned itself as its primary supplier of prescription pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter drugs.

D&K announced net sales of $211,198,000 for its fiscal year ending April 1, up 25.8 percent over the $167.9 million sales of the previous year. Northern reported sales of $55 million the past year and D&K estimates that revenues from the Drug Distributors Unit will be between $40 million and $50 million annually.

"Last year's earnings represented a high-water mark for D&K,' said J. Hord Armstrong III, chairman and chief executive officer of the firm. "And the company's performance was achieved during extremely competitive conditions within our industry."