MEXICO CITY – One of the
leading companies in the transformation of Mexico’s convenience store industry
is now turning its attention to pharmacies, the Financial Times reports.
Fomento Economico Mexicano (FEMSA) owns OXXO, a chain of more than 10,500
convenience stores across Mexico.
Now FEMSA wants to expand
the pharmacy chains it recently purchased: the Farmacias Yza and Farmacias YM
Moderna. The purchase gives FEMSA around 445 drugstores, and FEMSA has said
publicly its strategy is “to establish a relevant position in this attractive
small-box retail segment.”
The company hasn’t
revealed its plans for the two chains, but industry analysts speculate that FEMSA
will consolidate the brands under one name and format, as it did with OXXO.
That would give FEMSA the opportunity to re-launch a new pharmacy chain
throughout Mexico, rather than build it up one store at a time.
Analysts also point to the
company’s successful rebranding of convenience stores from dingy, disorganized
and undersupplied small grocers into well-lit, well-supplied convenience stores
as reasons to watch out for a revamping of the drug store. FEMSA is also the
biggest publicly traded bottler of Coca-Cola in the world.