Mumbai, April 08, 2015 – Wellness Forever, a leading Mumbai based retail pharmacy chain has raised INR 200 Million in a maiden Equity Round from a consortium of reputed HNIs and Family Offices led by Rajiv Dadlani Group for a minority stake in the Company. The consortium of investors included eminent Family Offices including Rajiv Dadlani Group, Patni’s backed RAAY Global Investments, Thakral Family Companies (Singapore), Allana Group (Middle-East) and others. The promoters have also participated by investing further in this round.
Rajiv Dadlani joins the Board of Directors of the Company representing the HNIs Investors and Family Offices and Amit Patni is an Observer on the Board.
The funding is being primarily deployed towards the launch of India’s first ZEDC (Zero Error Distribution Center), a state of the art warehousing and logistics facility in Bhiwandi for Pharma, Lifestyle, Wellness, FMCG products. Backed by this investment, Wellness Forever is also aggressively expanding its retail stores from 70 to over 100 outlets over the next 12 months across Mumbai as well as key growth markets of Maharashtra like Pune and Nashik coupled with hiring senior talent, technology implementation, and brand and marketing outreach.
Their stores have been inspired by reputed global pharmacies, designed in a very customer friendly self-browsing format. The Company employs over 1,500 people among which are over 250 qualified pharmacists and has a robust Training and Development program for their employees. The Company has over 500,000 loyal paid customers and operates under three formats including Retail Pharmacies, Hospital Pharmacies, and Managed Franchises. They offer a wide range of private label and premium label products and are growing this portfolio, as the management has a strong focus on increasing gross margins by focusing on optimizing the product-mix at their stores.
The Company has been profitable since inception and has been growing rapidly and is on track to achieve Revenues of Rs. 400 crores in the coming year. The Founders being visionary, hence the Company is investing heavily in technology and will be launching their online / web pharmacy along with their mobile app soon as they believe that the hybrid model i.e. offline stores and online pharmacy combination would work best in the future. They have also recently launched their loyalty card programme for their customers.
Commenting on Wellness Forever raising its maiden equity funds, Mr. Gulshan Bakhtiani, Co-Founder and Director, Finance & Strategy said, “We would like to thank our investors for their confidence in us and partnering with us to scale Wellness Forever to become India’s preferred and leading lifestyle pharmacy and wellness chain catering to varied health and personal care needs of our customers.”
Commenting on the investment, Mr. Rajiv Dadlani, CEO, Rajiv Dadlani Group, and active Investor, in early and mid-stage Companies, said “Over the last few years, Wellness Forever swiftly expanded its footprint in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Maharashtra. Growing their Sales and Profits at 35-40 % C.A.G.R, the company plans to expand its presence to 1,000 Retail Outlets pan-India in the next 5-7 years. Given their impressive track record and incredible work done so far and company’s vision, we are delighted to partner with them in their next phase of growth.”
Mr. Ashraf Biran, Co-Founder and Director, Operations said, “We believe pharmacies are much more than just a medical shop affecting patients in need of care and medication. With this vision, we launched Wellness Forever to professionalize the Indian pharmacy business by bringing best in class international practices and highest ethical standards”.
Mr. Mohan Chavan, Co-Founder & Director, Supply Chain & Compliance said, “Today there is an urgent need to educate customers on buying authentic medicines and products. Wellness Forever has always prided itself for selling authentic and premium products keeping in mind the storage and transportation requirements of varied medicines. With this investment, we aim to strengthen best practices and embark on an exciting growth journey to redefine servicing standards in the pharma industry.”
Founded in 2008, Wellness Forever currently has a chain of 70 lifestyle pharmacies and wellness stores operating on 24*7 basis in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Belgaum and rest of Maharashtra. They offer a comprehensive range of pharma, medical, lifestyle, wellness and FMCG products, as well as medical devices such as angioplasty balloons/stents, cardiac surgery products, trauma products, orthopedic and neurosurgery implants etc.
