Watson's

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the retail and manufacuring division of Hutchison Whampoa. For the independent school in Edinburgh, Scotland, see George Watson's College.

A Watsons' drugstore in a shopping mall in Singapore.

Watson's or Watsons (屈臣氏) is the retail and manufacturing division of Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong Based Conglomerate with interests in businesses as diverse as shipping and telecommunications.

With a history dating back to 1828, starting from a dispensary (屈臣氏大藥房), the A.S. Watson Group has evolved into a global retail and manufacturing business with over 6,500 stores globally and is the employer of 87,000 people internationally.

In Asia, Watson's main retail business is the market leading "Watson's Your Personal Store" drugstore chain. Watson's now operates this store format in several countries in Asia including Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Macau, Korea and The Philippines. They have recently launched this store format in Turkey. Watsons also control the "Fortress" Electronics chain and the "PARKnSHOP" supermarket group. Watsons also owns the "Watson's Water", "Sunkist" and "Mr. Juicy" beverage brands.

Watson's has expanded rapidly in Europe through a large-scale acquisition program which has seen the group become the world's biggest health and beauty retailer.

In 2001, Watson's purchased the UK based "Savers" discount drugstore chain. Subsequently Watson's acquired The Holland-Based Kruidvat Group, through this acquisition Watson's added over 1400 stores to its business and for the first time entered the Dutch, German and Belgian marketplaces where Kruidvat traded as Kruidvat, Trekpleister, ICI Paris and Rossman. This transaction also strengthened Watson's position in the UK adding "Superdrug", the number 2 health and beauty retailer in the UK to its retail portfolio.

More recently Watson's has acquired the "Drogas" and "Portegies" Drugstore chains, The French-based "Marionnaud" perfumery business and "The Perfume Shop" retail chain in the UK.