Yaps’ strategy to be No. 1: Flood market with outlets

How can one become a leading drugstore company in the country?

For the brothers Antonio and Ramon Yap and their family, the way to dominate the health and wellness market is to flood it with more drugstore outlets carrying their brand – ThreeSixty Pharmacy.

A minority player a year ago, ThreeSixty Pharmacy easily and aggressively dominated the wellness market by flooding Cebu with outlet openings at a rate of two to three outlets every month.

“We opened our first 10 outlets in May 27, 2010,” said Carlo Yap, son of Ramon and currently the business development manager of Prisolutions Corp., the holding company of ThreeSixty Pharmacy.

The family’s target is to have 360 outlets by 2019, which will have accomplished the brothers’ goal for the brand to provide for health and wellness in locations  convenient for people to find.

For each outlet, the family’s investment is from  P3 million to P4 million.

“At present we already have 41 branches in Cebu with about 550 employees for ThreeSixty Pharmacy,”  Carlo said. “By May next year, we will have a total of 60 branches which will already include branches outside of Cebu.”

In November, Carlo said the drugstore would open its first outlet in Tacloban  and two more in Dumaguete City and Tagbilaran City in Bohol in January 2012.

The Yap brothers came from a  family which used to own a wholesale store in one of Cebu’s oldest market zone, Taboan in Cebu City, in the 70s.

They dreamed of going into the retail business such as a convenience store that would cater to everyone’s needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But they decided to venture to other businesses successfully such as in the field of distribution, furniture, export and food manufacturing.

Then last year, they decided to enter the health and wellness market.

In a year’s time, the brand has made in-roads in the market.

Carlo said when they started, they had to look for a good location to rent the space to set up the branch.

Now with their brand already established, he said that property owners would now invite them to check out their place and offer it for lease.

“That alone is already something that will serve as an indicator that ThreeSixty Pharmacy brand is already known by our target market,” he said.

They now also have three branches that operates 24-hours a day which includes their branch in Southgate Mall and MEPZ 2 in Mactan and along Highway Street in Guizo, Mandaue City.

“We always want to keep it true to our vision which is to provide the needs of our customers not only through our strategic locations but also through our operations. We decided to operate those three branches 24-hours because it’s a busy district,” he said.

In choosing which brands to carry in their pharmacy, Yap said that they simply considered the needs of the people and tried to carry everything from the generic brands to the branded ones.

“Because people want options and we want to cater to everyone from the price-conscious to those who also wants the branded medicines,” he said.

The pharmacy also carries health supplement brands, which is part of ThreeSixty’s positioning in the market as the overall provider of health and wellness products.

“We see a growing demand for health and wellness products that is why we don’t only cater to those who needs medicine but also those who are health-conscious and takes a lot of vitamins and other food supplements,” he said.

The firm is exploring tie-ups with companies with programs for their employees like discounts and credit accounts.

“We currently are partners with Fairchild Semiconductors in Mactan where we accept purchase orders for their employees to get medicines from us. Coop members in Mitsumi in Danao and CFI in Capitol also have the same arrangments with us,” he said.

With the early success of their brand which recently was awarded by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Emerging Entrepreneur of the year, Yap said PriSolutions Corp. is now planning to open another brand with a convenience store concept.

“It will be like Seven Eleven brand that will operate 24-hours a day. Hopefully we’ll launch this brand next year which will be ready for franchising,” Yap said.