India Pharmacy Chain / Medical Stores - Exclusive Review
Thursday, November 27, 2008
In continuing our coverage on Retail Chains, we are today covering the Pharmacy / Medical Store Chain vertical.The current pharmacy retail market size is estimated to be of US$ 4.5 billion and it is expected to grow to US$ 8.7 billion by 2010. Pharmacy retail is growing at the rate of 20-25 per cent annually. The organized pharmacy retail chain is dominated by 12-15 big players. There are more than 3500 organized retail pharmacy outlets in India and it is expected to grow to10,000 by the end of 2010.
The organized pharmacy retail market is dominated by big industrial houses like Ranbaxy's (Fortis), Pantaloon (Tulsi), Reliance Retail's (Reliance Health and Pharma) and Subhiksha as well as health care players like Apollo Hospitals Group's (Apollo Pharmacy) , Medicine Shoppe , Zydus Cadilla's (Dial for Health), Sagar Drugs & Pharmaceuticals' (Planet Health), Morepan's (Life Spring), Lifetime Healthcare's (LifeKen), Global Healthline (98.4), Guardian Lifecare's (Guardian Pharmacy), MedPlus to name a few.
Modes of Operation:
- Company Managed Stores - Company owned pharmacy outlets are owned and manage by company itself. Major pharmacy chains in India like Fortis, Apollo, Alchemist, Subhiksha and Dial for Health have their own pharmacy chains
- Franchisee - Medicine Shoppe, MedPlus, Medicine Shoppe operates through the model of franchisee stores in India.
- Hospital Pharmacies - They catered mainly to the requirements of patients admitted in the hospital. They were housed in the hospital building and dispense a limited number of medicines. The average size of such stores is 150-200 sq. ft
- Retail Stores/Standalone stores - The second category of stores, near the residential areas, provide the benefits of proximity to consumers. Some of these stores offered home delivery. The target customers of the store were the educated middle and upper class households
- Malls/Shop-in-shops - The biggest advantage, most retailers say, of having in-store outlets at supermarkets or departmental stores is the fact that popularity of either brand rubs off on the other. Guardian pharmacy recently signed an agreement to open outlets at Spencer's stores in east India and is negotiating rights for northern India too. Spencer’s has tie-up with LifeKen Medicines for store-in-stores at its Daily stores in the South. New-u, retail outlet of H&B Stores Ltd. are located in Malls.
- Townships - Many pharmacy chains are planning to set up their pharmacy chain in townships. Apollo is planning to set up Medicity near Pune. Apollo has signed an agreement with Hindustan Construction Co (HCC) to set up the medicity inside the upcoming project named Lavasa near Pune.
Apollo Pharmacy: A division of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd., is India's first and largest branded pharmacy network, with over 720 outlets in 17 states. Apollo pharmacy is accredited with - International Quality Certification and is open for 24 hours. Apollo will have 1000 pharmacies by the end of financial year 2008-09. It is giving free health insurance on purchase of above Rs. 6000 in a year.
Fortis Healthworld: Pharmacy chain promoted by the Singh family of Ranbaxy. It operates under two models - Company owned and operated stores and Franchisee owned stores. Currently Fortis has around 40 stores and planning to expand its presence to over 100 cities.
MedPlus Health Services: Hyderabad based pharmacy chain, MedPlus was launched in 2006 currently operates more than 500 stores in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan and plans to increase it to 1000 by March 2009. Mauritius based iLabs Management LLC has invested $5.2 mn in MedPlus.
Tulsi: Tulsi is a pharmacy retail chain of Future Group. Most of the Tulsi outlets are located in Big Bazar. Future Group currently has over 35 Tulsi outlets across the country.
LifeKen: promoted by Lifetime Healthcare Pvt Ltd is a leading Pharmacy Retail chain in Bangalore and Chennai. LifeKen operates in total 82 Stores in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. The list comprises 37 LifeKen Stores, 11 Pill and Powder Stores and 7 stores in Spencer's Stores in Bangalore. LifeKen is planning to open new retail pharmaceutical chain in the cities of Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kochi and is also set to expand to other cities in the South and West and then to North and East.
Guardian Lifecare Pvt. Ltd is North India's largest retail chain of Pharmacy, Wellness, Health and Beauty Retail outlets. The company has 149 outlets in 16 cities. Guardian Lifecare plans to open another 150 new stores across India by March 2009 and Guardian chain will grow to 400 stores by March 2010 and will be investing Rs.100 crore to fund our expansion.
98.4: a pharmacy chain operating in Delhi and NCR is a brand of Global Healthline. Parent company has presence in Europe and the Middle East. 98.4 has 27 stores in India and is expected to ramp up the count to 300 by 2011.
SAK CRS: SAK Consumer Retail Services Ltd is a subsidiary of Delhi based business group, SAK Industries. Its store brand, CRS Health- The Wellbeing Place, is one of India’s premier Retail Pharmacy brands. The CRS Health stores have representation in all major centres in India to include Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Pune and Chennai. There are more than 30 CRS Health stores in India.
Foreign Player:
Medicine Shoppe, the Indian arm of global chain Medicine Shoppe International started its operations in India in February 1999. Medicine Shoppe follows the model of franchisee stores in India.
Should you be interested in reading the Logistics, Regulatory needs and Backend operations of Pharmacy Chains, do let us know by means of comment and we will be happy to write about it.
Tags: Retail India, India Pharmacy Retail, Pharmacy Retail,Health India
Labels: India-Retail-Chains-2
Posted by Retail Reporter @ 12:01 PM
19 Comments:
your article on retail pharmacy chain is excellent and also helpful for the new players.it would be much more helpful if you could give me information about logistics and regulatory requirements.
awesome article.. very informative.. my company is planning to enter into this field.. please give insights on margins, logistics, future growth and other necessary details..
thnx..
I would like to know regulatory requirement to open a retain pharamcy store either within a hospital or outside. Also if you can throw some light on capital requirement & best possible administration to be adopted, it will be very helpful.
thank you
prakash Sovinhalli
Highly informative article, especially the breakdown of the organised sector and their future strategy.
Would be great to know the logistics and supply chain side of the business...as well as the distribution channel dynamics.
Hope you can oblige...
Regards,
Anis Gandhi
Here is the link to Backend and Logistics of Retail
hi, couldyou pl. proide me the contact details for retail expansion.
durgesh.s@rediffmail.com
Hi,
Please provide more info on Logistics, Regulatory needs and Backend operations of Pharmacies.
Thanks
Varun
I wish to know more about pharmacy chain and its future as franchisee format. Stalin, Chennai Mobile:09884030290
mcgstalin@gmail.com
98.4: a pharmacy chain operating in Delhi and NCR is a brand of Global Healthline. Parent company has presence in Europe and the Middle East. 98.4 has 27 stores in India and is expected to ramp up the count to 300 by 2011.
Why are retail pharmacy chains being sold out. Is it that the unorganized stores are performing better than them, if not then why are they downing their shutters............
Retail Pharmacy is not about selling drugs, but about understanding and fulfilling the health care needs of the customers.
Hi, i am keen to find out the typical margins a retail pharma company makes - any views?
Hi
1)are internal controls ie - theft by employees manageable with product as small as strip of medicine tablet , as one strip/ Injection can cost thousands of Rs in some case
2)Please provide more info on Logistics, Regulatory needs and Backend operations of Pharmacies
3) what are the overall margins of standalone retail medicine shop
4) to start one shop we need liscense or we can hire one D pharm of B pharm ......what is the case if one wants to open 100 shops what kind of liscense is than applicable
5) are there specific VC/ angel funds who are intrested in this area
I would be really grateful if u can give insight on above
plz help clarify at
brijeshdesai@hotmail.com
9822076261
great
I am presently operating a Drug Store in Delhi. Our Drug store has been opened in year 2000 and till 2009 the sale was stagnent infact declining. I actively joined my fathers business in Jan 2009 and from then the sale has shot more than double.
The reasons which i analyzed behind declining sale of a medical store or any pharmacy chain unit can be
1 Lack of sense of ownership
2 Lack of proper knowledge of medicines their ingredient and their actual use in the using patients.
3 Lack of direct customer interaction
4 Multiple salesman which give ambiguity to the regular patients. In my experience patients like to talk to same person again and again who can satisfy them
5 Lack of Medicine range. I can understand that no medical store can keep entire range of medicines but they shoould have a well defined purchase channel who can supply them medicines on short notice. As customers can get irritated by shortfalls of medicines
6 Ability to suggest the medicines to patients. Many patients in cases of emergency wants the advice from their medical stores. When salesman is not able to handle such situations then patients may divert to other stores
7 Lack of advertisment Its a highly necessary step as persons who want your services must know that you are a player in market.
8 Impress in first talk
9 Discount. Its a reality if you dont give discounts then regular purchasers of medicines wount purchase medicines from you. You should be able to negotiate with vendors to obtain medicines at max discounts and pass it truthfully to your customers. I strongly believe that one satisfied customer can get you two customers and this is very true in our case. Also a clever salesman is who can acess the point where the patient can be broken to make an effective sale. On an average you always get margins.
Now Few points which i find very contradictory as many International Pharmacy chain adopts are as follows
1 AC pharmacy shops never attracts the customers.
2 Pharmacy with doors creates a barrier bet the patients
3 Displaying discounts structure like you give 10% or 12% create a cheap impression on customer mind
4 Very Very neatly arranged shop creats an impression on customer that this shop has limited inventory. This is a difference bet medicine business and other retail business. In medicine business patient want range not display of goods.
5 Idle salesman standing over counter creates an impression that pharmacy has no customer. Sales man should be always busy. This is a negative attraction and it works
6 Giving everything to customer is not a healthy option. Like many medicine shops keep pen, pencil, biscuit, key chains, etc. I personally find that this dilutes the speciality of the shop. you should specialize in something so that when customer has the need created in his mind he should remember your name. Medicine shops should not become grocery or general store.
There are many other my personal experiences. If any one wants to share he can mail me at
A.K.Jain
shaktimedicos@mail.com
Thanks
we are having a premisis ideally suited for Retail,with 50,000+sqft + Two level cellar parking ,backed up by Generator ,,transformer,and escalater for all floors Lower groundfoor ,ground floor + 4 floors
location Hyderabad, A.P. india ,prestgious commmercial place on main road. available for Lease
contact 9849221242/9849563398
email at rooplal@hotmail.com
Looking to open over 20 medical stores in Nepal. Interested companies looking to open 1st medical retail chain in Nepal, please write me at prasunjalan@gmail.com
I am interested in a JV or a brand franchising model.
really a good information.
Hello,
I want to stablished retail pharmacy chain in orissa. Plz guide me there procedure and there expencess.
Waiting 4 ur rply
Regards
Jeetendra
9704675810
Post a Comment
<< Retail India