1.

0 Introduction
Watsons Personal Care Store is a healthy and beauty retailer that was established in
1828.Watsons is a click-and-mortar retail personal care store and is listed under the
retailingindustry, in which selling goods to the ultimate customer who buys them for personal
useinstead of business use.

Watsons has targeted its customers based on their spending power, particularly with
monthly income more than RM2,500 and middle class women who aged from 18-
40y e a r - o l d . T h i s i s b e c a u s e r e s e a r c h h a s s h o w n t h a t f e m a l e i n t h i s a g e r a n g e
a n d consumption ability are more willing to invest their times for a cheaper and
betterproducts than others (Cast Software, 2011).

Watsons has successfully dominated the market with its operation over 4,000 stores andmore
than 1,000 pharmacies in 12 Asian and European markets, including
China,Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey, Ukraine,
HongKong, Taiwan and Macau. Besides, Watsons has strived to sets a standard in the
health,wellness and beauty market, providing personalised advice and counselling in
health,beauty and personal care on top of its market-leading product range in order to
enhancecustomers shopping experience (A.S. Watson Group, 2014). Therefore, this effort has
ledto an achievement of being awarded no. 1 in "Asia's Top 1,000 Brands Survey 2010" for the
three consecutive years in the "Retail–Pharmacy/Drugstore" category (Watson, n.d.a).

The evolvement of Watsons began with a doctor from Scotland, Dr.Thomas

BoswellWatson, who was part owner of a Hong Kong Dispensary (Big Medicine Shop),
which isa branch of the Canton Dispensary operated since 1828. In year 1860,
Hong KongDispensary was leased to A.S. Watson and two doctors and since then, the
name “A.S.Watson” was conspicuously featured at the Hong Kong Dispensary. However, in
1871,the Watson family has leased the organization to Dr. John David
Humphreys andDr.Arthur Hunt, and thereafter trading was executed under the name
A.S. Watson &Company. Since 1963, Hutchison Whampoa Limited has been acquiring a
controlling interest in A.S. Watson & Company and then become the owner of A.S.
Watson &Company in 1981 (Waters, 1990).

Watson is one of the subsidiaries of the A.S. Watson Group, which has now become
thelargest health and beauty retail group in Asia and Europe with operation in 33
countriesthrough a network of over 11,000 stores (Sky News, 2013). Besides, it is now owned
byHutchison Whampoa Limited, which accounted 75% of the stakes after the
remaining25% of the stakes was sold to the Singapore-government owned Temasek
Holdings inMarch 2014 (Chan, 2014).
Watsons Personal Care Stores (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd set up its first outlet in Holiday Plaza,Johor
Bahru in 1994. In 2005, Watsons has obtained the Apex Pharmacy chain, in whichcomprises
18 stores nationwide and this remarkable milestone has brought Watsons to ahigher level in
the pharmacy business. Today, Watsons has successfully operated morethan 350 stores in
Malaysia, serving more than 50,000 customers per day (Watson, n.d.b).