Apokjeden is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 pharmacy

Pharmacy

Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...

 wholesaler and retailer owned by Finnish Tamro

Tamro

Tamro is a Finnish wholesaler and retailer of pharmaceuticals and is a subsidiary of the Phoenix Group. It operates wholesale throughout Northern Europe as well as retailing in Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In Norway it owns Apokjeden which in turn owns the chain Apotek 1, the largest in...

. It owns the largest pharmacy chain in Norway, Apotek 1

Apotek 1

Apotek 1 is the largest pharmacy chain in Norway, owned by Apokjeden with more than 240 outlets in 2009. The chain was first established in 1999, but has since the deregulation in 2001 expanded massively and now has a 40% market share....

. The company started a cooperation with a number of pharmacists who wanted a wholesaler independent of the state owned Norsk Medisinaldepot

Norsk Medisinaldepot

Norsk Medisinaldepot AS is a pharmaceutics and healthcare products wholesaler in Norway. It also operates the pharmacy chains Vitusapotek and the franchise chain Ditt Apotek. NMD is part of the Celesio group and has a total of 220 pharmacies in Norway, including the 31 hospital pharmacies...

 in 1995, when most pharmacies in the country joined the company. 1997 saw the first attempts to brand the pharmacies, as Plussapotek. The first branded pharmacy as Apotek 1 was launched in 1999 in Manglerud Senter. In 2001, the pharmacy market was deregulated, and Tamro was at first chosen as a wholesaler, before eventually buying the entire company in 2004.