SRL Diagnostics has allocated Rs 300-500 crore to expand its laboratory and collection centres network by the end of the next financial year, a top company official said.
The leading diagnostics chain currently operates over 420 laboratories in 600 cities across 34 states and union territories.
"We have allocated Rs 300-500 crore for expansion needs up to FY23-end... Since we already have a strong laboratory network, we will be adding only about 25-30 labs during this period. We will also be adding 1,500 collection centres in this time," SRL Diagnostics CEO Anand K told PTI.
SRL currently has 2,400 collection centres and 423 labs, he added.
"We are looking at both organic and inorganic routes for expansion. SRL has the strength of smoothly integrating large acquisitions," Anand said.
SRL continues to add new labs as per strategy. From April 2021, it has opened new labs in Lucknow, Cochin, and Udaipur, he said.
"We will continue to go deeper into our focus cities, and if this requires building additional capacity in terms of new labs, we would be investing in these. We are evaluating opportunities for the acquisition of labs as well as hospital lab management projects," Anand said.
The strategy for expanding the network lab will be determined by how much additional capacity is required in the cities SRL is currently present. Because of its large presence in over 600 cities, the current focus is to go deeper and wider in the markets that it is present in, he added.
On increasing the number of collection centres, Anand said, "We plan to add 1,500 collection centres by the end of FY23." In 2021-22 also, SRL has expanded the number of collection centres. "We have added about 200 new collection centres since April 2021, and we are also increasing the number of institutional touchpoints. Currently, we have over 2,400 collection centres at present," he added.
About the number of tests conducted by SRL, Anand said that in 2020-21, SRL conducted 30.4 million tests across its network. SRL conducted about 10.6 million tests during Q1 FY22, he added.
"We have the highest network of National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL)-accredited labs in the country. We operate 52 NABL accredited labs," Anand said.
SRL is the diagnostic arm of Fortis Healthcare.
