Dialforhealth India Ltd, a subsidiary of Cadila Healthcare and Unity Chemists & Druggists Pvt. Ltd, a company engaged in business of pharma retail and wholesale trade, has entered into a joint venture to set up a chain of pharmacy network in Gujarat.
The new venture, Dialforhealth Unity Ltd, has already enrolled 10 franchisees in Vadodara within two weeks of operations and plans to rope in about 250 retail outlets within the first year. Talking to Pharmabiz, Prashant Pandya, Director of Dialforhealth Unity Ltd said the outlets would offer value added services to the customers and marginally improve pharmacy practices. The company would rope in laboratories, MRI scan centres, X-Ray clinics and other healthcare concerns to offer doscounted services to its customers. Further, the outlets would provide services like home delivery, free health check ups, information on dosage, drugs, diseases etc.
"Dialforhealth Unity chain shops will deliver professional pharmacy services to our members and customers. We will offer managed care expertise, presentation skills together with professional service to our members that will attract more customers. We are also planning to introduce new territory in pharmaceutical care with the advent of our "Counseling to Customer" program," said Pandya.
Dahyabhai Patel, Director of Unity Chemists & Druggists Pvt. Ltd. was hopeful that the company would provide the desired support to retail pharmacies to meet the requirement and challenges of the fast changing retail scenario. V. K. Sharma, General Manager Operations, Dialforhealth noted there was a gap between today's customer expectations and the offerings by the pharma retail trade in general. With Indian consumers transforming into global customers, they now demand better facilities, international standards of service and experience besides top brands and quality products. Hence, it is becoming increasingly difficult for standalone starters to stay in business.
Vinay Shroff, Director of Dialforhealth Unity Ltd. and treasurer of AIOCD opined that in the ever-changing healthcare market domestic retail shops would face more intense competition from international giants because they are trying to penetrate the Indian market to run retail and wholesale business operations in Pharma field. He said many retail sectors, particularly in the United States, are now dominated by franchising.
Franchising has shown considerable growth in recent years and in advanced economies. Franchising and retailing represent a fruitful partnership and offers the advantage of starting or setting up a business quickly based on a proven trademark and formula of doing business, as opposed to having to build a new business and brand from scratch. As long as their brand and formula are carefully designed and properly executed, franchisors are able to expand their brand very rapidly and can reap enormous profits in the process, he added.