Friday March 13, 2009

Compugates to develop pharmacy chain

KUALA LUMPUR: Main board-listed Compugates Holdings Bhd plans to tie up with Mara to develop a chain of 3,000 bumiputra-owned pharmacies.

The company is the sole distributor for Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Amavita Apotheke Central for Malaysia and the Asean region.

According to a statement yesterday, the chain of pharmacies would be supplied with Amavita products under the Compugates Amavita Apotheke brand name.

Compugates’ subsidiary, Compugates Development and Mining Sdn Bhd, will be working with the Entrepreneur and Co-operative Development Ministry to develop the bumiputra-owned franchise under a proposed entrepreneurial scheme.

Under this scheme, Mara will provide each qualified bumiputra a loan of RM300,000, of which RM100,000 will be for setting up a pharmacy.

The scheme will involve the recruitment of Mara pharmacy graduates as entrepreneurs to own and operate these pharmacies.

The remaining RM200,000 will be for procuring pharmaceutical supplies through Compugates Development and Mining Sdn Bhd. Compugates will then continue to supply Amavita products to the pharmacies.

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Ask the pharmacist

1) I just have a the feeling that this will not work. There are many factors involved in opening a new pharmacy. In short, it is not an easy job. Competition is very intense. But lets see, u never know if u never try. Better than failed after trying than failed b4 trying. Unless we get dispensing right, this plan is not feasible at all.

2) Do u know why i say this plan is no good for the young bumiputras?
Opening a retail pharmacy requires very hard work and it is highly risky as well. How can u expect a freshly graduates without any retail exposure to run a biz on their own? Compugates is very smart indeed. They want to open pharmacies, but they knew the risk, so they pass on the risk to the pharmacist. If anything goes wrong, Compugates will not loss anything, as they still can recover their initial investment of 300k from the graduates.

As for the graduates, if the biz fail, they have to repay to the Compugates or else declared bankrupt. If the biz success, they still owe Compugates and they have to sticked to the agreement that they need to buy their good from Compugates. That means no diff, they took the loan and they r like an employee to Compugates.

What a stupid idea by Compugates, i hope pharmacist is smart enough to realize that.... If they really want to open their own retail pharmacy, why dont they just get 150k loan from banks?