AS Watson: Difference between revisions

A.S. Watson Group
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail, Health & Beauty and Manufacturing
Headquarters	Hong Kong, China
Number of locations	10,000 stores Worldwide
Key people	Domonic Lai (Group Managing Director)
Products	Health & Beauty & Lifestyle Brands
Owner	Hutchinson Whampoa
Number of employees	100,000

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit Next edit →

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Revision as of 01:49, 13 January 2012

The A.S. Watson Group (or A.S. Watson & Co. or ASW) is the world's largest Health & Beauty retailer, with over 10,000 stores in 33 markets worldwide serving over 26 million customers per week.

The group operates the world's largest portfolio of retail formats, retail brands and has the largest geographical presence, and the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong Conglomerate Hutchinson Whampoa.

History

A.S. Wastson was founded in 1828 as a small dispensary, with the mission in mind to provide free medical services, to the poor people of the Southern Chinese province of Guangdong (also known as Canton). This was the first foundation of the A.S. Watson Group. But the A.S Watson name didn't become prominent with the company until 1862, after Dr. Alexander Skirving Watson joined the company in 1858. In 1869 the Hong Kong Dispensary (as the company was know as then) was appointed to dispence to the Govenor of Hong Kong and the Duke of Edinburgh. 1871 was the year that the company was officially traded under the name A.S Watson & Company.

By 1886 the company had constructed it's first factory on Stanley Street, Hong Kong, and had become a Limited company and also completing it's first expansion futher into China and to the Philippines. By 1895 the company was operating 35 stores and was producing 300 dispensary, toiletry and perfumery lines.

In 1903 Watson's water was established, this enabled the company to provide pure water to the people of Hong Kong and Mainland China. 1937 saw the Japanese invasion of China and A.S Watson halted all operations in Mainland China. Eventually resuming business on September 1st, 1945.

The Hutchinson Group acquired a controlling interest in A.S Watson & Co. Ltd in 1963.

1972 saw A.S Watson acquire PARKnSHOP supermarkets from Y.K Lau, then in 1973 acquired Peter Pan Toy Shops and launched Mountain Cream, Ice-cream products.

1981 saw Hutchinson Whampoa limited take full control of A.S Watson becoming a wholly-owned subsidairy.

At the end of the 1980's the company grew rapidly by entering Taiwan in 1987, Macau and Singapore in 1988, and re-opening in China in 1989, all under the name Wastons' The Chemist.

FORTRESS joined the A.S Watson Group in 1990. 1994 saw the company open a new water factory in Beijing and futher expand Watson's The Chemist to Malaysia, by 1996 Watson's The Chemist had entered Thailand and in 1997 A.S Watson Group had acquired Shanghai Sparkling Drinking Water. 1998 saw FORTRESS open its first store in Taiwan and Watson's Wine opened in Hong Kong. 1998 also saw Nuance-Watson's retail stores open at Hong Kong International Airport. A.S Watson's water operations also expanded in 1998, but this time into Europe, through acquisitions. In 1999 A.S Watson sold it's Ice Cream businesses in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong to the Unilever Group.

In the year 2000 A.S Watson entered the United Kingdom with the acquisition of Savers Health & Beauty and in 2001 expanded it's Wine business with the acquisition of Badaracco SA.

2002 saw A.S Watson expand into Europe and the UK even futher with the acquisition of the Kruidvat Group, adding a number of different brands to it's portfolio incuding, Superdrug in the UK and ICI Paris XL and Kruidvat itself in Mainland Europe.

During 2003 A.S Watson signed an agreement to sell it's European Water Operations to Nestlé, Superdrug opened it's first new identity store in the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham UK. There were new store openings for Watson's (Your Personal Store) as the company launched it's third generation store, Watson's Water celebrated it's centennial anniversary and launched it's "Year of Hong Kong Creativity". FORTRESS launched a new identity in Hong Kong and Nuance-Watson opened Duty Free stores at Hong Kong International Airport.

Drogas Health and Beauty Retail Chain was acquired by A.S Watson in 2004, taking the group into the Baltics, Watson's also acquired Apex Pharmacy Sdn Bhd in Malaysia. The Group purchased a 40% stake in Rossman, Germany adding 786 stores to the groups portfolio. TASTE food galleria launched in November 2004 and Watson's Wine launched a new concept store in Hong Kong.

2005 was another busy year for A.S Waston as the Group Celebrated the opening of it's 100th store in Mainland China and it's 300th store in Taiwan. The Group entered Turkey with the acquisition of Cosmo Shop and the first Waston's Health and Beauty Store opened in Korea. 2005 also saw two major acqisitions in Europe with Marionnaud and The Perfume Shop. October 2005 saw the acquisition of Spektr, launching A.S Watson in the Russian Market.

2006 saw Watson's (Your Personal Store) open in Indonesia and Wastson's celebrated it's 200th store opening in June. A.S Watson entered the Ukraine through the acquisition of DC, and Marionnaud expanded into Asia with it's first store opening in the Philippines in September.

PARKnSHOP launched it MoneyBack loyalty programme in 2007, and new store concepts were rolled out throught 2007 across brands in Europe and Asia.

A.S. Watson Group Brands

Health and Beauty

Watson's (Your Personal Store)
Kruidvat
Trekpleister
Rossmann
Superdrug
Savers (UK)
Drogas
Spektr
Nuance-Watson

Luxury Perfumeries & Cosmetics

Food, Electronics & Wine

PARKnSHOP
TaSTE
Great
FORTRESS
Watson's Wine

Beverages

Watson's Water
Mr. Juicy
Sunkist

Customer reward and loyalty programmes

The A.S. Watson Group currently looks after 42 million customers in its global database of loyalty programmes, adding Kruidvat, Superdrug and The Perfume Shop to the list in 2011.

External Links

@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 saw A.S Watson expand into Europe and the UK even futher with the acquisition of the Kruidvat Group, adding a number of different brands to it's portfolio incuding, [[Superdrug]] in the UK and [[ICI Paris XL]] and [[Kruidvat]] itself in Mainland Europe.
-During 2003 A.S Watson signed an agreement to sell it's European Water Operations to Nestlé, [[Superdrug]] opened it's first new identity store in the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham UK. There were new store openings for [[Watsons (Your Personal Store)]] as the company launched it's third generation store, Watson's Water celebrated it's centennial anniversary and launched it's "Year of Hong Kong Creativity". FORTRESS launched a new identity in Hong Kong and Nuance-Watson opened Duty Free stores at Hong Kong International Airport.
+During 2003 A.S Watson signed an agreement to sell it's European Water Operations to Nestlé, [[Superdrug]] opened it's first new identity store in the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham UK. There were new store openings for [[Watson's (Your Personal Store)]] as the company launched it's third generation store, Watson's Water celebrated it's centennial anniversary and launched it's "Year of Hong Kong Creativity". FORTRESS launched a new identity in Hong Kong and Nuance-Watson opened Duty Free stores at Hong Kong International Airport.
 Drogas Health and Beauty Retail Chain was acquired by A.S Watson in 2004, taking the group into the Baltics, Watson's also acquired Apex Pharmacy Sdn Bhd in Malaysia. The Group purchased a 40% stake in Rossman, Germany adding 786 stores to the groups portfolio. TASTE food galleria launched in November 2004 and Watson's Wine launched a new concept store in Hong Kong.