On Monday, the group reached 300 pharmacies milestone and plans to open another 200 pharmacies and 100 optical outlets over the next two years.
The UAE’s Life Healthcare Group on Monday announced a major expansion with an investment of Dh100 million which will help create 2,500 new jobs in the country over the next two years.
The group reached 300 pharmacies milestone on Monday and plans to open another 200 pharmacies and 100 optical outlets over the next two years, which will increase its workforce from 3,000 to 5,500 in the next couple of years, said Jobilal M Vavachan, CEO of Life Pharmacy.
He said the major diversification is coming into primary healthcare because the biggest demand is for this segment.
“We have decided to come up with a new concept called walk-in clinics within pharmacies. Life pharmacies are big spread over 5,000sqft so we thought why not bring in doctors within the pharmacies. Our primary healthcare endeavour will now be yet another platform which will allow us to take our health and wellness march to higher levels of committed service to the country,” added Jobilal.
Unveiling the details of the diversification, Life Healthcare Group also announced the opening of 25 outlets on the anniversary day on Monday. The company had started operations in 1996 with one outlet in Jumeirah. The healthcare group now has a span of a total of about 700, 0000 square feet of business space, which is the largest spread for a single pharmacy group in the UAE.
“For us, moving into the primary healthcare space is a natural progression as a well-acclaimed brand in the pharmacy segment of the country for 25 long years,” said Abdul Nazar, chairman and managing director of Life Healthcare Group.
He added that 10 walk-in clinics are also being developed and the plan is to open 50 such clinics in 2-3 years. In addition, 20 standalone community clinics are also planned over the next two years in the country.
Jobilal noted that around 50 to 60 per cent of patients are for general practitioners and general medicine and this is the area that has the biggest demand.
He noted that this massive expansion of the group can come through acquisitions or mergers.
The Life Healthcare Group has its core focus on prevention is better than cure approach, which will also drive its strategic investments in the primary healthcare sector. He stressed that no patient will be turned away even if he or she doesn’t have the insurance.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Finance World staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
