Asia Cryo Cell to expand overseas and domestic operations

Chennai: The country's first private cord blood banking company, Asia Cryo Cell Private Ltd, is setting up its base in Dubai, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Seychelles and Bangladesh. According to CEO V R Chandra Mouli, the Sri Lankan and Dubai centres will be operational by February 2007 and before FY 08 the centres in other countries will start functioning.

The company has got the marketing rights for the Asian region from its US-based technical collaborator Cryo Cell International.

"In the gulf cooperation countries (GCC) and Malaysia we will set up our own operations and in other markets we might go for franchisee model." According to him, the overseas companies will be targetting the expatriate Indians living there and later look at other communities.

In the domestic market Asia Cryo Cell is present in 26 centres and will be increasing the same by adding five more centres by March 2007. "Except for three all other centres are owned by the company. The total investment for expansion is around Rs2 crore," says Mouli.

"The total investment made by the company so far is about Rs30 crore towards infrastructure, market expansion and branding building," he adds.