Cosway Pharmacy aims to be biggest retail pharmacy player

                             

KUALA LUMPUR: Cosway (M) Sdn Bhd continues to expand its network in Malaysia with a plan to open 200 Cosway Pharmacy retail stores nationwide in the next one year, thus making it the biggest retail pharmacy player in Malaysia.

To date the company has established 100 pharmacy stores across the country and its goal is to strengthen its network to 1,000 stores within a five-year period.

Cosway is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berjaya Corp Bhd.

Cosway managing director Al Chuah said on average the company invested close to RM150,000 per store, adding that the cost might vary depending on the conditions.

“The new pharmacy stores will involve incorporation within existing Cosway stores and a private-owned pharmacies as well as a completely new Cosway Pharmacy store,” he said after the launch of the Cosway Pharmacy 100th store yesterday.

For the 100th store, Chuah said it was converted from a local-owned pharmacy and Cosway had invested RM120,000 to renovate it.

On average, a Cosway Pharmacy has the potential to make record sales of between RM80,000 and RM90,000 per month.

                                 

When asked on the company's strategy to compete with other retail pharmacy players, Chuah said one of its strategies was its wide range of products offered.

He said Cosway had more than 2,000 consumer products with an average of about 10 new products introduced per month.

“As part of our strategies to compete with other players, we also have the Berjaya rewards card and at the moment we are collaborating withMaxis to create a medical device to measure the glucose level in our blood system,” Chuah said.

A representative from Cosway said the collaboration would be announced latest by end-March this year.

                          

Cosway Pharmacy has been selected under the ministry's liberalisation of attachment trainings for pharmacist. With the programme, pharmacists who fulfil the attachment under Cosway have a chance to be awarded a free store. The pharmacy store is referred to as a free store, whereby Cosway bears the rental, utilities and also supplies products on consignment.

The company also targets to tap the Philippine market this year.

“Our model to penetrate this market is via direct selling and working with local pharmacy owners by renting spaces to sell our products. We are going to focus on customers that are interested in beauty and health products,” Chuah said.

Source: 

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2013%2F2%2F25%2Fbusiness%2F12755849&sec=business

100th Cosway Pharmacy outlet launched by Health Minister

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry is considering providing incentives to encourage the private sector to set up community pharmacies in rural areas.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said such incentives was necessary to overcome a shortage of pharmacies in rural areas.

"The Ministry views the situation (lack of pharmacies in rural areas) seriously as many such pharmacies are only mushrooming in the city and concentrated in certain regions," he told reporters after opening the 100th Cosway Pharmacy outlet in Damansara, near here, on Sunday.

Liow in his speech text that was read by the Health Ministry's Pharmaceutical services division senior director Datuk Eisah A Rahman, said according to the ministry's statistics, there were 10,006 registered pharmacies and 1,834 community pharmacies throughout the country.

The concentration of community pharmacies is in Selangor (where there are 433 pharmacies), Penang (213), Kuala Lumpur (201) and Johor (157).

Realising the lack of pharmacies in rural areas and the inequitable distribution, the Health Ministry was looking into a zoning system to distribute pharmacies accordingly in urban and rural areas so that the people would not be deprived of such facilities, Liow said.

To ensure an equitable distribution of pharmacies in the country, the ministry and the Malaysian Pharmacy Association had developed the Malaysian Healthcare Providers Mapping Service.

Currently, the ratio of pharmacists to the population in Malaysia is 1:2,947 people and by 2016 it is expected to reach the optimum ratio of 1:2,000 people set by the World Health Organisation. 

Source: Star Online

A Review on Cosway Pharmacy Business Opportunity

Tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun plans to launch a new retail concept which could instantly make him the pharmacy industry’s leader.

The move means that Tan is making yet another bet on the healthcare sector. He is already the second largest shareholder of hospital operator TMC Life Sciences Bhd and stem cell firm Stemlife Bhd.
The gaming and property businessman wants to set up a venture called eCosway Pharmacy, which will incorporate pharmacies within Cosway stores, Berjaya Group’s direct-selling business.

According to sources, this 2-in-1 concept is expected to take off by year-end. It is understood that an existing Cosway store can add a pharmacy within its premises or an existing pharmacy may have a Cosway store. Alternatively, a new branch that incorporates both can also be set up.

Malaysia now has over 2,000 retail pharmacies which include Guardian, Vitacare and CARiNG.



Cosway, a direct-selling company, sells its products via its vast nationwide network. Its products range from health and nutrition to skincare and kitchenware .
Cosway (M) Sdn Bhd, when contacted by Business Times to comment and provide details of this new business model, said: "Cosway regrets that we are unable to comment at this point of time".

However, work on the new venture has started.

There are advertisements placed on job sites including one on the Malaysian Franchise Association which states that eCosway Pharmacy is looking for qualified pharmacists to partner its business owners.

If this works like how a Cosway store functions, it would mean that Cosway will provide rent-free stores, free renovation, free stock-up, free equipment and pay for electricity.

The Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) president Datuk Nancy Ho said that it was aware of the business model.

"MPS is conscious about the emergence of this set-up and is finding out more about the scheme to ensure that benchmarking and quality standards of practice are upheld," Ho said.



For Tan, this is not the first pharmacy venture. In January this year, the tycoon, in his personal capacity, bought a minority stake in home-grown CaRiNG Pharmacy. It was reported that this will enable CARiNG Pharmacy to expand faster. A check on CARiNG's website shows that it has about 60 local pharmacies.

It will be interesting to note that should the move take off, it would also benefit the group when dispensing separation takes place.


Updated Information  

(Taken from: http://pharmacistsharing.blogspot.com/)


Comparison Chart for Running Cosway Pharmacy VS Working in Independent Pharmacy/ Opening Own Pharmacy & Starting a Franchise

Working In Independent Pharmacy	Running a Free Cosway Pharmacy
Working for others	Become own boss
Getting salary	Getting salary as well (Rm5k-Rm8K)
No passive income	Passive Income ( Networking)
No profit sharing	Profit sharing up to 50%
Fix working hour	Able to arrange our time
Got EPF	No EPF (But Salary added 12-13%)
Got annual leave	No annual leave (Treat as your own business)
Learn store management skills	Learn Store management skills
Depend on salary hike or bonus which is one –off.	Passive income is unlimited through power of network.
If stop working, no money for us	If able to achieve enough passive income, able to achieve financial freedom
Able to choose outlet location	Able to choose outlet location

Opening own Pharmacy	Running a Free Cosway Pharmacy
High initial investment	No investment required
High cost like marketing/ advertisement	Marketing / advertisement done by company
Building lease or purchase cost	Cosway pays the lease
Branding may not strong	Good branding ( Established since 1979)
May work individually	Work in team ( Back up by Berjaya Corporation under Tan Sri Vincent tan)
Potential customer will be lesser	More potential customer through cosway network nationwide
Riskier	Very low risk
Price of product is less competitive	Price of product is more competitive
May work individually	Work in team ( Back up by Berjaya Corporation under Tan Sri Vincent tan)
No guarantee income	Guarantee income (Rm5k-Rm8K)
Single source of income	Multiple streams of income
Depend on active income	Achieve financial freedom through passive income

Buying a Franchise	Running a Free Cosway Pharmacy
High initial investment	No investment required
Ongoing franchise fees	No fees charged
Building lease or purchase cost	Cosway pays the lease
Limited products or services	Unlimited product range
Buying yourself a job	Create time & financial freedom
Single source of profit	Multiple streams of profit

Above comparison charts are taken from http://pharmacistsharing.blogspot.com/

Contact: Benson Ong ( Cosway Pharmacist) - 0127334511