Shoppers Drug Mart

Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Drugstore, Retail
Founded	1962
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people	Murray Koffler, founder Mike Motz, President, Shoppers Drug Mart, Division of Loblaws
Products	Drugs, Health
Parent	Loblaw Companies
Website	www.shoppersdrugmart.ca
Footnotes / references Number of Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix stores: 1,253 Number of Home Health Care stores: 62

Pharmaprix store

Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation is Canada's largest retail pharmacy chain, and has its headquarters in North York, Toronto, Ontario.^[1] It has more than 1,253 stores operating under the names Shoppers Drug Mart in nine provinces and two territories and Pharmaprix in Quebec.

Founded by Murray Koffler, the Koffler family still retains ownership of the Super-Pharm pharmacy which is in Israel, Poland, and China. Super-Pharm uses the same logo as Shoppers Drug Mart, created by the artist Sylvain Liu. It also uses some of the same private-label brands, such as Life Brand and Quo. In 2013, Brampton-based Loblaw Companies acquired Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation for $12.4 billion in cash and stock.

Overview

A Shoppers Drug Mart store in Sussex, New Brunswick

Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation is the licensor of full-service retail drug and convenience stores operating under the names Shoppers Drug Mart in English speaking Canada and Pharmaprix in Quebec. Founded in 1962 by Toronto pharmacist Murray Koffler, the company has expanded to a network of more than 1,253 Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix stores across Canada. These stores are owned and operated by Associate-Owners, all of whom are licensed pharmacists. The company also licenses or owns more than 56 medical clinic pharmacies operating under the names Shoppers Simply Pharmacy (Pharmaprix Simplement Sants in Quebec), as well as six luxury beauty destinations operating as Murale.

In addition to its retail formats, the company owns and operates several specialty services. This includes 62 Shoppers Home Health Care stores, which sell and service assisted-living devices, home-care products, and mobility and medical equipment; Shoppers Drug Mart Specialty Health Network, a provider of specialty drug distribution, pharmacy and comprehensive patient support services, and; MediSystem Technologies Inc., a provider of pharmaceutical products and clinical services to long-term care facilities and retirement communities.^[2] Shoppers Drug Mart is a unique and independent operating division of Loblaw Companies Limited.

History

A Shoppers Drug Mart in Markham.

A Shoppers Drug Mart location on Dupont Street in Toronto, Ontario.

Shoppers Drug Mart in a historic building in downtown Toronto.

At the age of twenty, Murray Koffler inherited two Koffler's Drugs pharmacies in suburban Toronto (one in the Don Mills Centre shopping mall). By 1962, Koffler's had grown to a chain of 17 pharmacies, which he renamed "Shoppers Drug Mart" in the 1970s. The first store named "Shoppers Drug Mart" was at Shoppers World Danforth from which it derived the name.

Koffler revamped the concept of the 20th century “drug store” in Canada by removing the soda fountain and emphasizing the dispensary, requiring his pharmacists to wear starched white coats as a symbol of their professionalism. In the mid-1950s, he began acquiring other drug stores and organized them around a then-novel franchising concept: pharmacist “associates” would own and operate their own stores within the system and share in the profits. In 1968, Shoppers Drug Mart grew to 52 stores in Ontario by merging with 33 Plaza Drugstores. In 1970, Shoppers Drug Mart purchased 87 Cunningham Drug Stores in British Columbia and Alberta. The first Pharmaprix store opened in 1972 in Québec. In 1974, Lord’s Supervalue Pharmacies 26 stores in Atlantic Canada joined the Shoppers Drug Mart family. In 1986 Shoppers Drug Mart bought Super X Drugstores, an Ontario-area chain of 72 stores. In 1992, the company bought up the Western Canadian chain Pinder's Drugs, and followed this in 1995 with a chain of 24 Bi-Rite Drug Stores based in western Canada. Also in 1995, Shoppers Drug Mart acquired 135 Big V Drugstores. In 1996, the first Shoppers Home Health Care store opens.

When Koffler retired in 1986, he sold the chain to Imasco. That same year, David Bloom, a former Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacist, was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Bloom would lead the organization until retiring in 2001, having devoted a total of 35 years of service to the Company. During David Bloom's tenure, Shoppers doubled its number of stores, quadrupled its sales and increased profit ten-fold. David Bloom also launched the Shoppers Optimum loyalty program in 2000 which quickly became the largest and most successful loyalty programs in Canada. The Optimum program currently boasts over 10 million members in Canada.

In 2000, after Imperial Tobacco had been taken over by BAT Industries (formerly British American Tobacco), Shoppers was sold to a consortium of institutional investors including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Bain Capital, Inc., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, Charlesbank Capital Partners, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, CIBC Capital Partners, and Shoppers Drug Mart's senior management and pharmacist/owners.

In 2001, Glenn Murphy was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. In November of that same year, Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation was publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In 2002, Shoppers Drug Mart introduced its first large format stores, with more space, a sleek and modern look, and a stronger focus on cosmetic products. Typically the cosmetics section faces the entrance, with the pharmacy counter at the back and a convenience food section, called Food Essentials, near the front cash. In most suburban areas, this new format takes the form of new or relocated store, typically stand-alone "big-box" locations as opposed to smaller mall or strip-mall locations.

In 2003, Shoppers Drug Mart introduced its first beautyBOUTIQUE, setting a new standard for the industry with its open-sell display and unbiased approach to customer service in prestige cosmetic retailing. Today, there are 364 beautyBOUTIQUES across the country.

On April 26, 2007, the 1000th Shoppers Drug Mart store opened in Toronto, Ontario.^[3]

In recent years, the chain has been moving to decrease its reliance on pharmaceutical sales and increase sales of what it calls "front of store" items, such as food and cosmetics. The store claims that in 2012, it increased its market share in food and that 51% of purchases now come from non-pharmaceutical items.^[4]

Acquisition by Loblaw Companies

On July 15, 2013, Loblaw Companies announced that it would acquire Shoppers Drug Mart for $12.4 billion, pending shareholder and regulatory approval.^[5] The deal was approved by the Competition Bureau on March 21, 2014, and completed March 28, 2014.^[6]

As a result of the merger, the chain began to develop synergies with Loblaw's grocery stores. Most prominently, Shopper's Drug Mart locations began to stock products from Loblaw's President's Choice store brand; likewise, Loblaw stores could now stock Shoppers' Life brand products.^[7] The Shoppers Optimum program might be kept or merged with PC Plus or PC Points within the next 3 years after the sale closes.^[8]

Shoppers Optimum

Shoppers Optimum is a loyalty card program that is exclusive to Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix stores. Members collect Shoppers Optimum points that may be redeemed on purchases within the store. Shoppers Optimum members receive 10 points for every dollar spent at the store. This excludes the purchase of lottery, tobacco products, transit tickets and passes, prescription items, any products containing codeine, Canada Post products and gift cards (except Shoppers gift cards). Events for bonus point collecting and/or redemption (e.g. 20x the points, bonus redemption) are regularly held. With Loblaw buying Shoppers Drug Mart, there are no planned changes to Shoppers Optimum in favour of PC Plus and PC Points.^[9]

Advertising

• "You're Gonna Be Happy."—Early - mid 1980s
• "Everything you Want in a Drugstore"—1980s and the early-1990s
• "Take Care of Yourself"—2000 to 2002
• "Your Life Store"—2002 to present (French variant: Vive la vie!, i.e. "Long live life!"), to go with its own featured "Life" trade brand.
• "Gifts Made Easy"—holiday campaign, 2006 to present

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shoppers Drug Mart.

• Shoppers Drug Mart
• Pharmaprix
• Murale
• Shoppers Photo
• Shoppers HomeHealthCare