China Jo-Jo Drugstores, Inc., a leading China-based retail and wholesale distributor of pharmaceutical and health care products through its own online and retail pharmacies, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2015.
FY 2016 First Quarter Highlights:
Revenue increase during the first quarter ended June 30, 2015 was mainly due to the expansion of the Company’s retail drugstores and online pharmacy business. Retail drugstores sales, which accounted for approximately 57.0% of total revenue, increased by $1,575,129, of which an 8.2% increase in same-store sales contributed $827,593 while new stores sales contributed approximately $617,453.
Online pharmacy sales reached $5,965,768, an increase of 131.9% over the same period last year, as we have been actively exploring new ways to grow our online sales. We have expanded cooperation with business-to-consumer online vendors, including Alibaba Group’s Taobao affiliate, JD.com and Amazon, by posting our products on their online platforms. In addition to launching an online payment service (“Alipay Service”) based on a service agreement with Alipay (China) Internet Technology Ltd. (“Alipay”), we launched stores on Tencent’s WeChat platform, China’s dominant mobile messaging app and social network with over 500 million active users.
Starting from January 2015, we have strengthened our cooperation with certain large insurance companies in China such as the People’s Insurance Company (Group) Of China Limited, to sell online products to their customers who have purchased health insurance through them. In May 2015, we have set up a joint venture, with a leading Pharmacy Benefit Management (“PBM”) provider in China, which owns and operates Yikatong (the “E-Pharmacy-Card”), a popular pharmacy and health insurance benefit program with over 180,000 current users. The joint venture agreement requires the PBM provider to direct the majority of its online E-Pharmacy-Card transactions to our official online pharmacy site. In June 2015, we have organized an operation team to direct the sales from commercial insurance to our own website. We expect that this cooperation will boost our online sales and profit margin in the future.
Mr. Lei Liu, Chairman and CEO of the Company stated, “We are excited to see a steady growth on our online and retail sales from last year. Revenue of our online pharmacy, www.dada360.com, is about five times the revenue of the same period last year thanks to our strategic partnership with China’s leading Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) provider and insurance companies. We are dedicated to further expand our efforts on our online pharmacy, which proves to be a popular business area supported by National Internet Plus Strategy in China. We will continue to devote resources to grow our online pharmacy business with the goal of becoming a national leader in pharmaceutical e-commerce business. Our retail pharmacies have also maintained robust growth both in sales and profitability. The management will strive to capitalize on the growth of health insurance and online sales in China.”