Navarros Target 22 More Sites Across Florida

By Yudislaidy Fernandez
Navarro Discount Pharmacy is to undergo an aggressive expansion, with a prescription to open 22 pharmacies in Florida in the next three years, almost doubling its store count and creating more than 1,000 jobs.

The largest Hispanic-owned pharmacy chain in the US aims to grow its brand outside Miami-Dade — where its primary customer base is Cubans — to capture other Hispanic markets throughout the state, CEO Steve Kaczynski told Miami Today.

"I’m not here to turn this into another CVS or Walgreens," he said, "but what we can do is we can be all things to all Hispanics."

Navarro has 28 stores in Miami-Dade, including Miami, Hialeah and Doral, and employs about 1,500.

The home-grown company, born in Havana and turning 50 this year in Miami, offers services uncommon in traditional drugstores, such as wireless phones, designer fragrances and healthcare clinics.

About two to five new stores would open in Miami-Dade, including Homestead, Mr. Kaczynski said. The rest are slated for Broward and Palm Beach counties first and then North and West Florida.

Existing stores are also getting a facelift, with five to be remodeled yearly.

Navarro’s chart calls for emulating its business strategy in the targeted communities.

Product lines to fill the shelves of its new stores are to meet the needs of Hispanics in those cities, he explained, such as Tampa, Orlando, East Naples and Fort Myers.

For example, a Navarro store in Homestead would carry products Mexicans like to buy and in Orlando, those that appeal to Puerto Rican consumers.

"There’s not one retailer in the United States today that caters to just the Hispanic market…," Mr. Kaczynski said. "As we expand, our goal is to make sure that we are focused on every ethnicity within Hispanics."