Medicine Shoppe launchs 100th store in India

Mumbai, Apr 6: Mr Bruce Burnett, the Business Head of Medicine Shoppe International, foresees a boom in retail pharmacy in India in the next five years. .

Mr Burnett, who was in the city to lauch the 100th store at Oshiwara in the Western suburb of Andheri, said, ''we aim to become a 200-plus pharmacy chain by the end of this year and cross the 700 mark in 2010 by expanding our operations in rural India.

India is very unique that inspite of having a pharmaceutical retail market of USD five billion and more than 800,000 chemists, there are very few pharmacy chains. However, the trend been changing with more chains opening in the country than in China, another competent market, which is also expected to witness a boom in retail pharmacy, he observed.

He said that the Medicine Shoppe, India, which started operations in 1999 working on Franchised Business Model has met with great success and has now emerged as the largest franchised pharmacy retail chain with 100 outlets in the country.

''We are currently operational in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, National Capital Region, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and soon enteri Bangalore city.

UNI