Metropolis Healthcare to set up 1,800 collection centres in three years

Diagnostic chain Metropolis Healthcare was all set to start 1,800 new collection centres and 90 processing labs across the country in the next three years, Metropolis Managing Director Ameera Shah said on Monday.

“Out of the 1,800 centres, around 80 per cent will be through franchises, while processing labs will be Metropolis’ own ventures. Each processing lab may see an investment of around Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore,” Shah said, adding that the majority of the 600 centres that it had planned for the current financial year would be coming during the first quarter.

Metropolis Healthcare had completed the acquisition of Chennai-based Hitech Diagnostic Centre (Hitech) along with its subsidiary Centralab Healthcare Services (Centralab) in October 2021 for a cash consideration of Rs 636 crore.

"Hitech is an affordable and acceptable brand in Chennai. Today, we have 43 centres and Chennai has a capacity to have around 100-150 centres. We are looking to increase our test menu as well in the city,” the managing director said.

The company is planning to add around 40 more Hitech centres during the current financial year.

Metropolis Healthcare has a total of 3,050 centres across the country.

“We also franchise our collection centres. We have a full research & development department that works on adding more tests. In Chennai we have 400-500 tests and we are planning to add another 100-200 tests,” Shah added.