Apollo Health eyes Rs 60-crore system-wide revenue from clinics

Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited (AHLL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited, expects the system-wide revenue of its Apollo Clinics to double this year to around Rs 60 crore. On the individual front, the company is looking at ending this year at around Rs 7 crore.

AHLL has adopted franchising as its business model for setting up Apollo Clinics. It has 43 such clinics operating in the country apart from the one in Doha.

The Apollo Clinic caters to the day-to-day healthcare needs and provides facilities for diagnostics, specialist consultations, preventive health checks and 24-hour pharmacy. The company is now looking at offering more facilities at these clinics which include a skin clinic within the Apollo Clinic apart from dentalcare and dialysis facilities.

Speaking to Business Standard, Ratan Jalan, chief executive officer of Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited, said, "Our franchisee clinics are doing significantly well and we are optimistic about posting system-wide revenues of Rs 60 crore this year. Last year, the system-wide revenue of these franchisee clinics was less than Rs 30 crore."

Based on the positive monetary outflow at the clinics, AHLL is ramping up its operations in India and overseas. "We intend to end this year with 50 clinics in India," Jalan said.

Internationally, the clinic has a presence in Doha via the Abdullah Bin Qasim Al-Thani Group. "We have also signed up for 10 such clinics in Saudi Arabia with the Fawaz Al Hokair Group. We are eyeing other markets like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa as well," he added.

On the national front, AHLL has set a target of 250 clinics in the next few years with potential direct employment expected to be around 7,000. At present, the clinics provide employment to 1,600 people. Each clinic involves an investment of between Rs 1.6 crore and Rs 2 crore.

The company is also looking at providing additional facilities at the clinics. "We are contemplating setting up skin clinic within The Apollo Clinic as a shop-in-shop model. These skin clinics will take up minor cosmetic surgeries as well," Jalan said, adding that dentalcare and dialysis facilities are also on the cards.

The company is also expanding the 'Cradle' brand of boutique birthing centres. Two of such centres are likely to become operational this year at Bangalore and Gurgaon.