Wellness Forever, a leading Mumbai based retail pharmacy chain has set up a Zero Error Distribution Centre (ZEDC). The facility is a completely automated state-of-the-art warehousing facility for pharma, lifestyle, wellness, FMCG products, strategically located in the logistics park near Bhiwandi on Mumbai-Nashik highway.
The company plans to open two more ZEDC centres in Karnataka and Goa in the next 18 months to augment its expansion plans.
The company recently raised equity funding of Rs.20 crore from a consortium of HNIs and family offices led by Rajiv Dadlani Group. The consortium of investors included eminent family offices including Rajiv Dadlani Group, Patni’s backed RAAY Global Investments, Thakral Family Companies (Singapore), Allana Group (Middle-East) amongst others.
The new ZEDC spans over 1,00,000 sq.ft., to cater to the supply chain for Maharashtra. It is designed and equipped with future ready technologies with entirely automated ready-made back-end. Addressing industry inefficiencies related to supply-chain management and cold-chain management, the new facility has been launched with an aim of providing error free distribution, increase dependability, provide complete ownership of back-end operations to improve supply chain and to eliminate any possibility of spurious drugs, as well as optimize efficiency with Punch-to-Pack time of less than one hour.
ZEDC is India’s first completely automated state-of-the-art facility, keeping with best in global standards, and is the new paradigm of looking at pharma logistics and warehousing. It also allows full facilitation for web/online sales and franchising. It will employ over 200 skilled professionals at the facility.
The Centre has two separate jumbo-size walk-in cold-rooms spread across 40,000 sq.ft of ambient temperature equipped with advanced cold chain infrastructure to efficiently manage storage and supply of temperature sensitive products including vaccines, anti-cancer drugs, biological products and blood products.
Gulshan Bakhtiani, co-founder and director, finance & strategy, Wellness Forever , said “Supply chain management and efficacy are critical aspects in pharmaceuticals as it affects human lives, giving no scope of errors. Our Zero Error Distribution Centre is “Re-designed to Re-define” the same”.
“Wellness Forever is bringing about a paradigm shift in the Pharma Warehousing and Logistics, by setting up our ZEDC. We will strategically expand its presence and improve overall efficiencies and better serve ends customers,” said Ashraf Biran, co-founder and director operations, Wellness Forever.
“Our ZEDC solves several industry challenges among them the two biggest pain-points being supply-chain management and cold-chain management. It also facilitates storing and supply of temperature sensitive products like vaccines, anti-cancer drugs, biological products, blood products, and ensures efficient logistics management”, stated Mohan Chavan, director supply-chain and logistics, Wellness Forever.