Diagnostic chain Metropolis Healthcare is planning to add 800 collection centres and around 10 laboratories by the end of next fiscal, a company official said.
The company currently has 150 labs with 1,800 collection centres and processes over 4,500 varieties of tests.
Metropolis Healthcare Promoter and Managing Director Ameera Shah said, "We are planing to add 800 centres and around 10 labs by the end of next financial year as part of our expansion plans,"
As part of the company's growth strategy, it would expand its geographical presence in North and Eastern parts of the country while growing depth in South and West, she added.
Shah said, "The business in North and East parts of India is growing quite fast. Punjab is big market for us. In Delhi also, we have done very well.”
During the last year, the company has set up labs in Ludhiana, Khanna, Ghaziabad, Dhanbad. We have also added labs in Kolkata, Patna and Delhi, she added.
About the southern and western regions of the country, Shah stated, "We are very clear leaders in West and South. Here we have to build much more depth. We are going deeper and nearer to the patients."
The company is currently present in seven countries - India, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Mauritius and Sri Lanka.
Regarding its entry into other international markets, Shah said, "In Africa we will keep growing, we are looking to enter one or more countries there."
The interest is now on building dominance and market leadership in the places that the company is present, she added.
On being asked about how the company plans to raise funds for the expansion, Shah said: "Expansion will be done through internal accruals. We are also planning to invest around Rs 60 crore over the next two to three years in technology."
The company had entered a public-private partnership three months ago with National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) for a three-year project to organise collection of blood and testing for HIV at 560 locations across India, Shah said.
She added, "We bring the samples on a weekly basis and bring them to our lab in Mumbai and do the testing and give the report back to the concerned.”
Metropolis Healthcare conducts more than 30 million tests a year catering to over 20,000 laboratories, hospitals, nursing homes and 2 lakh consultants. It offers comprehensive testing in the areas of genetics biochemistry, molecular oncology, anatomic pathology, microbiology, haematology, immunochemistry, among others.
