RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Al Dawaa chain of chemists aims to grow its store network, improve its brand image, and grow its e-commerce business, after its imminent $500 million initial public offering, the company’s commercial director has said. The company currently operates more than 900 pharmacies across 130 cities in the Kingdom, having opened 87 new branches in 2021. It aims to increase this to at least 1,065 stores by 2025. Listing represents a chance to “strengthen Al-Dawaa’s brand presence and future growth potential as well as reinforce our commitment to the highest standards of corporate governance,” Fahad Al-Farraj told Arab News. Proceeds from the offering will be used to feed that strategy and enhance automation across the company’s supply chain, he said. Al-Dawaa ends its book-building process today, with individual subscriptions invited between Feb 27 and March 1.The company earlier set the offering price range at SR65 ($17.3) to SR73 per share, aiming to float 30 percent of its SR850 million capital. The firm’s e-commerce platform “doubled in size last year and this is undoubtedly also a focus for growth going forward,” he stated. With respect to expansion, he said the business has a huge prospect for growing its brand portfolio, supported by favorable market conditions. “Over the past couple of years, we have been growing a portfolio of own brands, such as Ronzac our ‘nutraceuticals’ brand, which gives us the opportunity to expand outside our existing channels to market within Saudi Arabia, such as grocery stores.” As the pandemic weighed on businesses globally, 2020 was “an exceptional year” for the pharma retailer as it was among the few organizations allowed to operate during the lockdown, said Al-Farraj.Al-Farraj reiterated that Al-Dawaa has “recently completed the automation of its main warehouse facility.”