Godrej Aadhaar ties up with Apollo Pharmacy

Company Release, April 12

MUMBAI

Godrej Aadhaar, the rural services cum retail initiative of Godrej Agrovet Ltd., today signed an agreement with Apollo Pharmacy, part of the Apollo Hospitals group and India’s largest retail pharmacy chain, to offer medicine support across Godrej Aadhaar outlets in rural India.

The agreement establishes areas of collaboration that include setting up of Apollo Pharmacies at Aadhaar outlets called Apollo Aadhaar Pharmacy, offering genuine medicines and life saving drugs, round the clock to nearby villages. The new venture also plans to leverage the Apollo Group’s expertise in rural healthcare and contribute towards the rural healthcare system through telemedicine consultations, wellness programs, health check ups, community health insurance products, joint social welfare activities and medical camps. To start with, Apollo Aadhaar Pharmacies are being launched at the key Aadhaar centers, at Manchar, Pune District in Maharashtra and Jagraon, Ludhiana District in Punjab.

Speaking about the partnership, Mr. C.K. Vaidya, Managing Director, Godrej Agrovet Ltd. said, “We are pleased to enter into this partnership with Apollo, the largest healthcare services provider in India. Taking forward Godrej Aadhaar’s concept of ‘Everything under one roof’, we plan to offer the best medical facilities and a host of other welfare activities aimed at the rural community. This venture reinforces our commitment to the betterment of the quality of life of our agricultural brethren while single mindedly driving the core positioning of Godrej Aadhaar – ‘Khushiyon Ka, Khushhali Ka’. We look forward to a very promising and fruitful association that could meet the needs of the rural community”

The new generation Aadhaar offers farmers the convenience of shopping for quality products and services under one roof at the best cost. Apart from Apollo Aadhaar pharmacy, the rural community could also avail of a host of other value added services at Aadhaar outlets in the future. Aadhaar plans to provide facilities such as STD, Photocopy, Fax, Internet Facilities, Banking & Financial services, Courier/Postal collection services, Tailoring services for men & women, Saloon, Food services, Flour mill, Ambulance service, Electronic money transfer and Travel agents to name a few.

Ms. Shobana Kamineni, Director, Apollo Pharmacy said, “Close to 70% of population in India resides in the rural belts and most of them have little or no access to genuine medicines. We believe that rural belts have a real need and hence a huge potential for retail pharmacies providing genuine medicines and quality services. The Godrej Aadhaar network will enable us to unlock the

potential of rural markets. Rural India will certainly benefit from this association as they can be assured of quality medicines at the right price and additional healthcare services at their doorsteps.”

Besides offering genuine medicines, the Apollo Aadhaar Pharmacy will also be a one-stop shop for access to other Apollo Hospital Group services. It also plans to introduce innovative products in healthcare, tailor made for the rural markets.

About Godrej Aadhaar

Godrej Agrovet Ltd. belongs to the Rs. 5500 Cr Godrej Group and is a key player in the Indian agricultural sector with a large presence in cattle, poultry, aqua feeds and innovative agricultural inputs. With a turnover close to Rs. 870 Cr, the company employs more than 1600 employees and has over 40 manufacturing and processing facilities across India. Godrej Agrovet is a market leader in animal feeds, innovative agri products & oil palm development in India. Godrej Aadhaar is the rural retailing venture of Godrej Agrovet, an initiative started to strengthen its age-old relations with the Indian farmers.

Godrej Aadhaar, a complete solution provider for the Indian farmers provides professional guidance with an objective to improve productivity, higher returns and improved cost benefit ratio. The services offered are crop advisory services, soil & water testing services; buy back of output, crop finance, supply of agri inputs and animal feeds, transfer of information (weather, price, and demand supply), door delivery of products etc. While, the venture begun by offering agri solutions to the farmers, based on their feedback, it has over the last few months diversified into offering a number of other product categories like – durables, FMCG, apparels, footwear etc, thus catering to the complete requirement of the rural household – A one stop shop for Rural India. A number of corporates are already in the process of partnering Aadhaar for various projects for furthering the initiative.

Presently there are 23 Aadhaar Centres across the country in the States of Maharashtra (Ranjini, Umbraj, Ozar, Manchar, Alephata), Gujarat (Prantij, Umreth, Asodhar), Punjab (Thakthuchak, Wallah, Samrala, Lodhi, Jagraon, Malsian), Haryana (Hansi, Ladhwa), Tamil Nadu (Hosur, Palayam), West Bengal (Gadamara, Chanda), Andhra Pradesh (Mangalgiri, Elluru) and Orissa (Paga). The Company plans to set up over 1000 Godrej Aadhaar’s in the next 5-6 years across the country.

About Apollo Pharmacy Ltd

Apollo Pharmacy, the largest branded Pharmacy retail chain in India is a part of the Apollo Hospital Enterprise Ltd, Asia’s largest healthcare group. Started in 1983, Apollo Pharmacy has established itself as a leader though its well-established pan India network of over 400 outlets in 16 states including the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Over the years, Apollo Pharmacy has become synonymous with quality medicine provided through their 24-hour stores, manned by trained professionals. Apollo Pharmacy caters to the medicine needs of a large individual consumer base besides providing a wide range of pharmaceuticals to hospitals, large corporates, and Government bodies. The pharmacy also stocks a wide range of drugs-vaccines, sera, imported medicines, anti-toxins and immunological products etc.

Apollo Pharmacy is among the first in the industry to introduce innovation in Pharmacy retailing through various consumer friendly initiatives like Free Home Delivery, Prescription refill, Reminder service, Free Health Insurance scheme etc.

The company registered a turnover of approximately Rs 350 crores in the financial year 2005-06.