Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Retail is investing about Rs 1,500 crore for setting up 1,800 pharmacy stores across the country over the next 4 years. The company, which promotes Reliance Fresh and Reliance Hypermarket, is set to open its first drug store using the name, Reliance Wellness, in Hyderabad by next month.
Reliance Wellness will sell a variety of allopathic and ayurvedic drugs, as well as medical devices. The stores, each to be spread over 3,000 sq ft, will also have optical, beauty and diet care facilities. The stores will keep electronic health records of patients as well.
Reliance Wellness is planning to open about 25 stores each in metros like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi in the coming year.
Of the Rs 50,000-crore Indian pharmaceuticals market, retail holds the lion?s share of Rs 32,000 crore.
A source close to the development told FE, ?We are looking at a pan-Indian presence with 1,800 stores by 2011. Each store costs about Rs 80-85 lakh.? The company is learnt to be in talks with various wholesale distributors in major cities of the country.
But Reliance Wellness has no plans to compete with other retail chains like Subhiksha, Medicine Shoppe and Apollo Pharmacy and will not undercut on maximum retail prices (MRP). ?As of now, we have no plans to sell drugs below their MRPs. We will sell them at rates that are printed on the packs. We are focusing more on healthcare solutions that can be provided to consumers rather than selling drugs cheaply,? he added.
Apart from the stand-alone Wellness stores, Reliance Retail is setting up separate pharmacies on the premises of Reliance Fresh and Reliance Hypermarkets across the country. Reliance plans to set up 3,500 Reliance Fresh outlets and 900 hypermarkets in India by 2011. The company will invest about $5 billion over the next four years for its overall retail business in India.
