Oxygen availability has become a crucial element in the fight against the coronavirus second wave. Many hospitals, especially in Delhi - which has seen an alarming spike in reported cases, have complained of serious shortage. Along with this, new vaccines are on the way and supposed to hit the market by early May. Transportation of both, oxygen and vaccine, is critical and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is learnt to have taken stock of the transport situation.

Snowman Logistics had signed an MoU with Spicejet to transport vaccines where Snowman will be responsible for handling the ground services for transporting and storing vaccines. The stock has seen a 17 percent jump in the past 2 days as India expands its vaccination drive to all.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Sunil Nair, CEO of Snowman Logistics said that opening up of vaccine market has been a positive for the company.

“We have around 10,000-12,000 pallet positions available as of now for storage and at the same time, we have an equal transportation facility also. So, we see this as a big opportunity,” he said.

He also said that they are in talks with most of the vaccine manufacturers and are discussing domestic as well as import distribution and post-manufacturing statistics with them. He expects the imported vaccines to be transported across the country by mid-May.

On the overall business, he said, “We are quite bullish on the pharma sector. Last year we had created a pharma vertical in our organization so that we have a customized solution for the pharma industry. Our revenue has grown around 14 percent YoY for the last 2 years and it is as of now around 11 percent of our total revenue. We expect this and the e-commerce business to be the fastest-growing sectors in our portfolio. As of now, we don’t intend to get into oxygen transportation; we are still limiting ourselves with pharma and food distribution.”

He also said that they will deploy Rs 250 crore funds from QIP for capex in pharma and food.

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(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)

First Published:Apr 23, 2021 11:35 AM IST