The pharmacy franchise chain Discount Drug Stores is on track to meet its target of having 120 outlets across Australia by the end of 2013, and 200 stores within five years.

Since October last year the franchise network has grown from 100 to 110 stores. The 10 new outlets are across the home base of Queensland, as well as New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

The  group’s general manager, Douglas Kuskopf-Dallas, said “One of our key goals moving forward is to replicate our strong growth in Victoria and New South Wales. It will ensure we have a much stronger brand presence across Australia.”

The brand is investing heavily in new technology aimed at boosting efficiencies, and that will include comprehensive online training portals and resources to further enhance staff knowledge.

“We think it’s essential that our pharmacists are able to do what they do best, which is ensuring our customers have access to the best quality healthcare advice and products,” Kuskopf-Dallas said. “Our new systems will enable them to do this by managing the sales side of the business for them.”

He said the chain aims to provide customers with a wide choice of cost-effective services and products to improve health and wellbeing.

“It’s an ethos that was established when we first began franchising in 2006 and one that was developed out of the strong belief that affordability and quality could and should work together.”

The pharmacy chain is also increasing its in-store services and will be rolling out a number of health campaigns and services over the coming months to help position it as the leading pharmacy brand for service excellence.

Last year the group launched an e-commerce platform that allowed customers to shop online from their local store and introduced a private label range of over the counter medicines.

“The release of our private label range is just one new product launch that is aimed at giving our customers high quality but more affordable products,” said Kuskopf-Dallas. “We have a number of new product lines that we’re currently working on, some of which we’re hoping to introduce into the market in 2013.”