Contradicting a report published in a leading daily speculating on the entry of Bharti Retail in pharmacy retail, Vinod Sawhney, president and chief executive officer, Bharti Retail, told Indiaretailing, “We do not have any such plans.”
A section of the media, today, quoted Rajan Bharti Mittal, managing director of Bharti Enterprises, as saying, “We will probably have a tie-up for pharmacy counters and the announcement will happen as we unveil the stores. I don’t think there are enough brands in this category on a pan-India level.”
Indiaretailing had earlier reported that Bharti is planning to roll out about 55 hypermarkets across India by 2015. The hypermarkets will have shops with floor space ranging between 2,000 square feet and 5,000 square feet. The size of the hypermarkets will be between 75,000 square feet and 125,000 square feet.
The company at that point of time had no plans to get into pharmaceuticals retailing.
