Pharmacy Chain Wellness Forever Raises INR 1.3 Billion from Allana Group, Adar Poonawalla
Two Billionaire families led by the Allana Group of IFFCO UAE and Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla have invested INR 1.3 Billion in 24 * 7 pharmacy and lifestyle retailer Wellness Forever
Mumbai, November 09, 2020: India’s most respected chain of branded lifestyle pharmacies, Wellness Forever raised INR 1.3 Billion from Allana Group, Adar Poonawalla. Existing investors include banker and renowned investor Rajiv Dadlani and venture capitalist Sajid Fazalbhoy. The company is promoted by Gulshan Bakhtiani, Ashraf Biran and Mohan Chavan.
The Company has been profitable since inception, growing 35% YoY with best in class retail metrics, employs over 4,000 people among which are over 800 qualified pharmacists and has over 1 Million loyal paid customers.
Mr. Rajiv Dadlani, from the Family Office of the Rajiv Dadlani Group, and lead investor in the Company, said “We are very impressed with their growth, profitability, capital allocation, vision and ethics. The promoters having a collective experience of over 100 years, of operating profitable pharmacies, along with their management team, have done a splendid job and the Company enjoys amongst the highest operating metrics and productivity, in the entire retail space. Given their impressive track record and company’s vision, we continue to partake as long-term investors, and support them in their amazing journey, and next phase of growth.”
Sharing his views Mr Gulshan Bhaktiani, Founder & Director said, “We are extremely happy with the support and trust that our investors have shown in us. Moreover we are grateful to our customers who have shown trust in our services which has helped us in expanding our network. With this round of funding, we plan to strengthen our private labels that have gained popularity over the years. We will continue to add more retail stores and reach out to our customers not just through brick and mortar outlets but also through online channels”.
From being a mere start-up a decade ago, to clocking Revenues of over Rs. 1,000 crores for the current fiscal year, Wellness Forever has swiftly expanded its footprint to over 200 stores in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka. The company aims to add over 150 more stores in the next year and 1000 retail outlets in the next three years.
Funds will be utilized for store expansion, strengthening their highly profitable private label brands which are under its 100% subsidiary Amore which focuses on Wellness and Health products and invest more in e-commerce. The company has an existing online to offline strategy via omni-channel, hyper local delivery which it plans to leverage off E-commerce and Tele-commerce which is already growing into a large part of the company’s sales mix.
Wellness Forever has hired JM Financial for a secondary share sale for early investors and for pre IPO preparations. The company is on track to achieve sales of around 4,000 crores in the next 3-4 years with a 1,000 store count across the country.
The Company saw investor interest from several reputed private equity funds but decided to go with existing investors given their tremendous expertise in FMCG, Retail and Pharma.
