Imagine rural women travelling in camel carts to Hariyali Kissan Bazar, DCM Shriram Consolidated's (DSCL) agri mall, and returning with pregnancy detection kits.
Well, it may soon be a reality. Healthcare and pharmacy company Guardian Lifecare has opened its first chemist store in Hariyali's Bazar in Khairthal, 30 km off Behrore (midway between Delhi and Jaipur) and plans to have 16 more such stores in different villages of north India.
Besides medicines and toiletries, Guardian stores will have things like rapid AIDS test kits, blood sugar and pressure kits, baby care products, ayurvedic medicines, affordable imported condoms from Thailand and China, and medicines and bandages for cattle.
And to help these rural folk make the right choice on their home kits and medicines, Guardian has tied-up with local doctors and veterinarians.
"The Khairthal project has already seen villagers coming from as far as 50 km to buy medicines, supplements and different kinds of veterinary products from Guardian stores. Some village pradhans have also surveyed our stores," says Ashutosh Garg, chairman and managing director, Guardian Lifecare.
Brandnamed "Aushadhi", Guardian has signed an MoU for 16 such projects with Hariyali. "Depending on the commercial viability of the Khairthal projects, we will go ahead with other stores with Guardian. In fact, we are looking at Aushadhi playing the role of a primary healthcare centre along with local doctors and vets," says Rajesh Gupta, busines head, Hariyali Kissan Bazar.
With 1,000-odd customers visiting Hariyali Bazaar during the season time (which is usually over six months) and 200 during off season on a daily basis, Gupta says Guardian, which runs on a shop-in-shop model, will surely get the benefit of these footfalls.
Garg is also talking to other companies which have a strong presence in rural areas for a possible tie-up. Both Garg and Gupta says Guardian will check invasion of spurious medicines in rural areas.
How does Garg assure that drugs sold by Guardian are absolutely genuine? "Well, checking starts at the warehouse level alone. At least 15-20 medicines go for testing to government-approved laboratories daily," says Garg.
Guardian is also ready to help rural entrepreneurs set up chemist shops in these areas and the company claims it can help them with micro credit and initial training.
"This can easily fetch them an assured income of Rs 10,000-15,000 and a Guardian franchise can also help them get higher margins of 24-25 per cent," says Garg.
But if the company spends money on proving authencity of medicines and asures higher margins to franchisees, how does it make its own profits? "Well, we buy better and buy volumes," says Garg, who has a 70 per cent stake in the company.
However, it is not just the rural initiatives that Guardian is focussing on. It has opened its first store in Delhi Metro's Pratap Nagar station and is coming up with another six stores for which it has signed up with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
Garg says the high footfalls in metro stations will strengthen Guradian's position. With 42 operating retail stores, Guardian is opening eight more in different parts of north India and plans to go all-India in two years' time.
The company has also got in the best modern practices. It is offering loyalty points of 2.5 per cent on bill amount under its Guardian Privilege Cards programme that can be exchanged for products at any Guardian Pharmacy stores.
The chain also is offering free medical insurance that is worth Rs 25,000 for purchases worth Rs 20,000 within a 12-month period.
From 42 stores, Garg plans to expand its chain of stores to 100 by March 2006 and to 500 stores by March 2008. With an initial investment of Rs 25 crore with plans to raise it to Rs 75 crore, with 17 years of experience at ITC and with a bunch of NRIs and top professionals as other promoters, he must surely have learnt the tricks of expanding businesses.
