Holland & Barrett has agreed a £20m partnership deal that will see it open up to 1,000 stores in India.
The franchised businesses will be rolled out over the next five years with the first store opening in New Delhi next week.
The rollout is in partnership with Apollo Hospitals, a franchise operator and the largest hospital and pharmacy business in India. Holland & Barrett will have standalone stores and in-store concessions with Apollo.
“The secret of the success of our international growth has been to combine the best of British products and heritage with local market understanding and expertise by our overseas franchisees,” said CEO international Peter Aldis.
“We are seeing that consumer interest and engagement with health and wellness in the UK is being replicated in India and many other countries in which we are either already operating or currently exploring. With our strong product offering and expert training for franchisees, we are quickly able to adapt to these different markets and gain a foothold.”
The health and wellness retailer was today granted the Queen’s Award for International Trade, which Aldis said would give it an important reputational advantage for overseas growth.
Holland & Barrett International has seen 28 consecutive quarters of growth with an annual rate of more than 10%. Its sales increased from £513.6m in 2014 to £573.8m in 2015, with about a quarter (£133m) from international sales.
Its international network is a combination of owned stores in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Ireland, and more than 100 franchised stores across eight other markets including core franchise markets in China (35 stores), Singapore (28 stores) and the UAE (17 stores). It wants to double store numbers in these markets in the next two years as part of becoming a £1bn business by 2020, as well as seeing further expansion in Europe and the Middle East.
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