Highlights:
- Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) is likely to take a leap further, to start its healthcare business - Wesfarmers Health.
- The new venture of the retail giant will focus on providing beauty, health and wellbeing products and services.
Leading consumer service provider Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:WES) was spotted trading 1.340% higher at AU$47.630 apiece at 11:06 AM AEST on Friday (5 August).
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Staples sector was 0.691% up at 13,614.8 points around the same time.
Why is Wesfarmers in news?
Wesfarmers will be infusing a new venture in the healthcare sector. The new division of Wesfarmers’ venture is named as Wesfarmers Health. This new segment will primarily focus on health, beauty, and wellbeing departments.
Wesfarmers believes that the healthcare sector is a big and significant one that has lot of growth opportunities. The company has also stated that the number of people aged from 65 and above is likely to increase and get doubled by 2060-61. The number might rise to 8.9 million.
Moreover, Wesfarmers has also added that people have become more health conscious now and therefore, there is a huge demand for beauty, health and wellbeing products and services across Australia. Apart from that, people are also gaining awareness of preventive health measures and treatments these days.
Lastly, the company believes that technology could play a significant role in transforming the entire healthcare scenario in Australia. Healthcare combined with ‘data and digital’ may improve customers’ experience to a large extent in improving healthcare outcomes.
Updates on Wesfarmers’ API business:
As per some media reports, Wesfarmers Health’s leader, Emily Amos, will now be responsible for leading Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) as its former in-charge, Richard Vincent, retires.
However, Vincent will continue to be associated with Wesfarmers as an advisory person.
Wesfarmers’ share price performance on the ASX:
Over a period of one year, Wesfarmers’ share price has marked a loss of almost 25% on the ASX. On the other hand, Wesfarmers’ YTD-based share price declined by almost 20%. Meanwhile, in six months, Wesfarmers’ share price declined by almost 10% on the ASX (AS of 11:00 AM AEST).