Medlife plans to open 750 retail pharmacies across India by 2020-end

Health-tech platform Medlife is planning to expand its presence in the retail pharmacy segment by opening around 750 pharmacies across the country in two years, a top company official said.

The company, which is a leading player in the online pharmacy segment, is mainly looking at acquisitions to achieve the target.

"We have started the omnichannel where we are now looking at active acquisitions of offline retail chains. We want to open close to 750 retail pharmacies in two years, by end of 2020," Medlife Founder and CEO Tushar Kumar told PTI.

These stores will act both as offline pharmacies and also as well as hyper local centres for last mile delivery of medicines, he added.

On being asked how the company plans to fund the acquisitions, Kumar said, "We have earmarked around Rs 250 crore for the acquisitions. This would be raised through internal accruals and we also have commitment from the Alkem Family Trust."

The company is targeting pharmacy chains in the country for the acquisitions, he added.

The company is also looking at operating hospital OPD pharmacies and as part of this endeavour going forward, the pharmacies in Fortis Hospitals will be managed by us, Kumar said.

Medlife is currently present in around 21 cities with 50 licensed pharmacies (fulfilment centres), through which it dispenses medicines for the orders it receives online.

On the growth of fulfilment centres, Kumar said, "We want to expand our presence to 50 cities from present 21 where we are operating and will be adding 60 more fulfilment centres in the coming fiscal year."

The new locations will be mainly tier II cities such as Indore, Chandigarh, Mangalore, Durgapur, Howrah, Surat, Nagpur and Kanpur among others, he added.