The competition in the Rs 32,000-crore Indian pharmaceuticals retail industry is hotting up as the retail players implement innovative plans to capture the market. Ranbaxy-promoted Fortis Healthworld plans pan-India presence with a different model, shop-in-shop, with the company plans to open as much as 200 chemists shops in various malls as well as other corporate retail chains across the country within a year.
GR Sunil Menon, general manager, institutional business & pharma purchase, Fortis Healthworld, told FE, ?We have entered into the rural areas through the tie-ups signed last year. Now, we want to establish a pan-India presence, for which we are in final stages of talks with three major retail groups across the country. If we enter the deals successfully, there will be about 200 stores across the country within a year.? The company is investing about Rs 800 crores for setting up 1,000 stores across the country by 2011. The shop-in-shop stores will have an area of 150-200 sqft. The company has tied up with with Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar, a unit of DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd, last year. At present, 50 stores are operational by Fortis. To challenge retail pharma giants, the All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists Association (AIOCDA), the largest chemists association in India with about 5 lakh chemists as members, is in the process of setting up limited companies in each state under the AIOCDL banner.
