The Hindu Business Line : Pharma retail with a personal touch!

IT may not be long before you get a message on the cell-phone reminding you that your blood pressure medicine is almost over and it's time to stock up.

"Consumer-driven services such as home deliveries, messaging regular clients to buy medicine or consume them on time, providing health insurance to regular clients - this is the direction that pharmacies will have to take," says Mr Viraj Gandhi, Managing Director, The Medicine Shoppe (TMS).

His company is currently working on cell-phone compatibility to send personalised health messages.

TMS, the Indian master franchisee of US-based pharma retail company, The Medicine Shoppe International, is looking to fuel growth from 51 retail outlets in the country to 500 by 2009.

Having entered India more than four years ago, TMS has staggered its growth targets by three years.Despite an estimated one million chemist shops in the country, organised retail is represented by emerging names like Apollo Pharmacies and the Capital-based fledgling retail chain, 98.4.

Mr Gandhi feels that the growing process for TMS will be faster over the next few years.

"Earlier we offered our franchisees intangibles like marketing support, etc. Now we provide tangible benefits, like discounts. In retail, return on investments come in seven years, but we guarantee returns in one year. We sell only at MRP, with no additional taxes, and the benefit gets passed on to the consumer."

TMS is running a pilot project with Royal Sundaram to provide health insurance coverage of Rs 15,000 to consumers who purchase medicine worth over Rs 12,000.

"The purchase of Rs 12,000 can be over two months or two years, but the consumer needs to be less than 45 years. With the required purchase amount, consumers over 45 years can nominate someone else as the beneficiary of the health insurance," he said.

"This scheme is on in few centres in Mumbai. We have smoothened the edges based on consumer feedback and will extend it to other pharmacies in our retail network in a week."

TMS also has a tie-up with Bajaj Allianz for personal accident insurance and has distributed policies worth Rs 11 crore nationwide, he added.

By 2009, TMS hopes to stabilise in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Goa and enter the Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala markets.

It expects to clock revenues of Rs 23 crore for the current fiscal compared to Rs 10 crore last year.

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