Watsons Personal Care Stores (traditional Chinese: ????????; simplified Chinese: ????????; pinyin: Q?chénshì Gèrén Hùl? Diàn; Jyutping: Wat1san4si6go3jan4wu6lei5dim3), known simply as Watsons (???), is the largest health care and beauty care chain store in Asia. It is a member of the A.S. Watson Group, majority-owned by CK Hutchison Holdings. It operates over 700 stores in Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia.
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History
Dr. Thomas Boswell Watson (1815-1860), from Scotland, was the first member of the Watson family to arrive in the Far East, where in 1845 he set up a private practice in Macau, on the southwest coast of China. After selling his practice to a fellow doctor, he moved to Hong Kong in 1856 where he became part owner of the Hong Kong Dispensary, an offshoot of the Canton Dispensary which operated from 1828 to 1858. Known as the "Big Medicine Shop" (Chinese: ???; Cantonese: Dai Yeuk Fong), the dispensary's main customers were soldiers and sailors. The dispensary was not known as A.S. Watson until 1870, although Alexander Skirving Watson took over in 1858 following management changes. T. B. Watson sent his family back to Scotland in 1857 and he himself followed two years later.
Following the death of Dr T. B. Watson in 1860, the Hong Kong Dispensary was leased to A. S. Watson and two other doctors, and from 1862 onwards, the name A.S. Watson featured prominently at the Hong Kong Dispensary. In 1871, the Watson family leased the company to Dr John David Humphreys and Dr Arthur Hunt, and thereafter trading was executed under the name A.S. Watson & Company. Retail outlets were known as "Watsons the Chemist".
The current owners, Hutchison Group, acquired a controlling interest in A.S. Watson & Co., Ltd in 1963. In 1981, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. At this time, the group had 75 retail outlets.
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Gallery
References
External links
- Watsons Hong Kong /(in traditional Chinese)
- A.S. Watson Group
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (Hong Kong) (in Taiwanese Mandarin)
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (Mainland China) (in simplified Chinese)
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (Malaysia)
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (Philippines)
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (Singapore)
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (Taiwan) (in Taiwanese Mandarin)
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (Thailand) (in Thai)
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (Turkey) (in Turkish)
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (Ukraine) (in Ukrainian)
- Watsons Personal Care Stores (known as Drogas in Latvia and Lithuania) (in Latvian)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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