Dialforhealth, a group company of Zydus Cadila Healthcare, has signed a 50:50 Joint Venture with Green Cross Healthcare Pvt Ltd on October 19, 2004 to expand its Franchise Operations in Maharashtra. The company already has a significant presence in the retail healthcare sector in Mumbai.

The Joint Venture named as 'Dialforhealth-Green Cross' seeks to leverage the management expertise of Dialforhealth and the strong retail presence of Green Cross members to capture a significant market share of the retail healthcare market, VK Sharma, general manager-Operations, Dialforhealth told Pharmabiz.

Organized Pharma retailing is ready to take off in India. The organized healthcare retail segment is estimated at Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion). According to healthcare industry estimates, the total private expenditure on health is increasing by 27 per cent per annum.

Dialforhealth, an ISO 9001:2000 company is amongst the first ones in the organized retail pharmacy business. The company today has a well-established presence in the Western & Central suburbs of Mumbai and Pune through its own company managed pharmacies and franchised outlets. The company has gained an expertise in managing retail pharmacy operations, Sharma added.

Dialforhealth's customers were enrolled under its Care Programme benefit from various Health Check-up camps like Diabetic, Hypertension, Dental, Asthma, Bone Density and others. Dialforhealth adds a service orientation by offering ambience & care to its customers thus re-affirming its punch line "A Healthy Experience at no extra cost."

Kishor R Shah, Vaijnath Jagushte and Prasad Danave are the directors of Green Cross. Green Cross is the first successful Corporatisation attempt by the India's pharmaceutical trade in its effort to equip itself to face the challenges of the post-GATT era. Green Cross currently has a membership of 50 retailers and aims to have more than 400 members within the next one year. J S Shinde, president MSCDA has shown his confidence in the joint venture.

Sharma noted, the JV company shall encourage existing retailers to become franchises of Dialforhealth Green Cross. Franchises will be provided with marketing and management support from the JV Company. Dialforhealth Green Cross shall carry marketing activities like conducting health camps, tie-up with hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare services.

The JV Company will use a two-pronged approach in helping franchises with Customer Relationship Management (CRM). In the first stage, emphasis will be laid on Customer Acquisition wherein health camps and other diagnostic camps will be conducted to make customers aware about the various services that the franchise provides. At the second level, Customer Retention strategies will be employed to improve retention rates and basket size. Dialforhealth already has implemented successfully the first-of-its-kind Customer Loyalty Program (CLP) in its own pharmacies.

The JV will provide its expertise in vendor and inventory management, which will help franchises get better margins. The JV Company will also tie-up with various healthcare companies to make attractive product / service offerings to franchise partners, he informed.

The Joint Venture will combine the retail management expertise of Dialforhealth and the retail strength of Green Cross. Sharma added, the Joint Venture is unique since this is the first time that Industry and Trade Representatives have come together.

Both the partners believe that Organized Pharmaceutical Retail is presently in a nascent stage and this sector will witness a major boom in the coming years.