VWR International inks joint distribution agreement with HiMedia Lab

Mumbai, Nov 13 (UNI) VWR International Inc, a leader in global research laboratory industry, opens a wholly owned subsidiary in India and today inked a joint distribution agreement with HiMedia Laboratories here.

Kevin Leak, Senior VP of Strategic Sourcing and Category Management VWR told a press conference here that several of VWR's current global customers have opened their reserach and manufacturing facilities in India coupled with the rapidly expanding domestic pharmaceutical and biotech industry in the Indian subcontinent. 'This presents a tremendous opportunity for VWR to meet the needs of our existing customers and to tap into new market growth, while supporting VWR's overall strategy of geographic expansion with first class local service for our customers,''he said.

The Indian Subsidiary VWR Lab Products Private Limited headquartered in Bangalore with a branch office in Mumbai serves as a central resource for customer service sales support and technical services for the Indian subcontinent. As a fully licensed Indian company then new office has the ability to hire locally and conduct transactions in local currency, offering an added convenience for VWR's global customers.

''India is a growth market for VWR and has traditionally lacked a one-stop-shop provider for laboratory products with the capability to offer everything from consumables to instruments. VWR will now fill that void and help create procurement efficiences along with global product standardisation in terms of range and quality,'' M K Sathya Managing Director, India Operations VWR said. ''The need of our customers will be better served with a local office that can provide immediate solutions for their business challenges,'' Sathya added.

Dr GM Warke, CEO, HiMedia Laboratories Private Limited, said it had entered into a seperate joint distribution with VWR International Inc to exclusively distribute VWR's renowned BDH line of chemicals.

''VWR has a long standing history of being a global leader in the distribution of laboratory products in North America and western Europe. Given that VWR is already an exclusive distributor for Hi Media's innovative product line for Hi-Veg (TM) microbiological and cell culture media for North America it makes for a strong mutual relationship,'' Dr Warke said.

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