Colruyt invests another 20 million in Newpharma

The Belgian Colruyt Group is in a generous mood: a week after it invested twenty million euros in fitness chain JIMS, the retail ecosystem is doing the same for its online pharmacy Newpharma.

More health, fewer banks

Colruyt Group is increasing its subsidiary’s capital by 20 million euro, website De Rijkste Belgen reports. The supermarket group is increasingly investing in its health and wellness business, as only a week ago JIMS was given twenty million. Most of the money will be used to repay external bank financing early, Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports.

Although Newpharma was still loss-making last year, Colruyt tells De Tijd that both the online pharmacy and JIMS are profitable and growing today. Indeed, CEO Gilles Jourquin previously indicated that Newpharma could be profitable, but preferred growth for now. The digital pharmacy used a significant amount to open a brand new and partly robotised distribution centre last year.