Investing to build a leader in online pharmacies

Driving a personalised approach to health and wellbeing

Atida began in Europe in 2006 as a traditional pharmacy business looking to bring the multibillion pharmacy market online. While it was an alternative to high street pharmacies, it lacked the strategy and capital to truly expand into a pan-European market leader. In 2016, MARCOL Health invested in the company and brought in a management team to implement a new strategy.

Today, through targeted acquisitions, Atida is the largest online pharmacy in France, Spain and Portugal, second in Italy and third in Germany. It has the reach to serve around 200 million internet shoppers. “We are on a mission to help Europeans make better decisions about their health by providing a trusted and personalised health ecosystem that caters to both preventative and curative needs,” says Atida chief executive Julie Szudarek. “Atida isn’t just a pharmacy, it’s an online health offering committed to ensuring that the journey towards improved health and wellbeing becomes a trusted and truly personal experience.”

Atida aims to facilitate this journey by helping individuals take an active role in reaching their best self, by helping people to make better decisions about their own healthcare. Their ambition is to move wellbeing from a strictly curative and reactive approach, to one that is proactive and incorporates prevention. The company is creating personalised solutions that people can trust.

Atida continues to build its range of private-label products, including lotions, first aid, vitamins and supplements. The initiative started in 2020 with just 50 own-brand products and that number has increased to over 200 today, with an expectation to end 2021 with more than 300 products that cover a significant proportion of consumer purchase categories. Atida Pure is the company initiative providing personalised regimens of supplements, tailored to suit individual needs, by using information provided through a personalised survey.

MARCOL Health has been instrumental in helping to scale this innovative healthcare service into an international platform. “The pharmacy market worldwide is worth $300 billion and is set to undergo a paradigm shift towards the online marketplace – as has already happened in other sectors such as travel, banking and insurance,” says Ed Radkiewicz, chief executive of MARCOL Health. “With investment and strategic collaboration with the Atida management team, we have helped to refine the company’s customer-orientated approach, catalyse its growth and position it to be a leader in the space. Together, we have turned an interesting proposition into an international platform of scale.”

Atida continues to consolidate its brands and roll out its strategy to bring the in-store experience into customers’ homes. Supported by MARCOL Health and its management team, it has the opportunity to capitalise on the vast market opportunity and change the way we shop for our health and wellbeing.


For more information, please contact
Ed Radkiewicz, chief executive, MARCOL Health on e.radkiewicz@marcol.com


Ed Radkiewicz, chief executive, MARCOL Health

Ed joined MARCOL in 2015 with more than 20 years’ experience within the health sector across the UK and Europe, the US and North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Ed has built and managed several international healthcare businesses that included private equity-backed operations in developed and emerging markets, as well as acquiring and integrating established companies across international regions. The health operations included care delivery, health technology and management, mental health, diagnostics and wellness. Prior to this he worked for the world’s largest healthcare business based out of the US, UnitedHealth Group, where he led its international health services and technology operations ‘Optum’.

Julie Szudarek, chief executive, Atida

Julie joined Atida, a MARCOL company, at the end of 2018 as a leader in ecommerce with more than 20 years’ experience running online businesses. Most recently, Julie was president of Groupon’s international business which included the business outside of North America. During this time period, she was responsible for business consolidation and sustained growth across the 12 countries in the company’s international footprint as well as a team of 1,500-plus across sales and marketing, operations, logistics and administration.

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