Page 29 - Sphere No.29 (Jun 2011)

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Sphere
The design and layout
of each generation of
Watsons stores reflects
a contemporary look and
feel. Pictured (far left) is a
store front around the year
2000, another (second
left) about two years ago
and (right) images of
stores to come.
“Our expansion into Europe was driven by
the vision of extending the A S Watson retail
network outside of Asia,” explained Malina Ngai,
Director of Group Operations, Investments and
Communications and Head of International
Buying. “As with any merger and acquisition, the
major challenges were integrating workplace and
management cultures and identifying optimal
synergies between established local systems and
the A S Watson Group.”
All the retail brands acquired in Europe already
had well-established and valuable brand equity in
their respective local markets. “By joining the A S
Watson family, they received financial support to
grow their businesses, while still maintaining the
brand identity familiar to their customers,” said Ms
Ngai. “They have also benefited from more efficient
and effective systems and processes, centralised
sourcing as well as constant exchanges of best
practices across all markets.”
No sign of stopping
Back home, expansion and upgrading of the
Watsons chain have continued at a hectic pace.
In the past two years, 50 new stores have opened
or been extensively renovated in Hong Kong.
A further 40 new stores are set to open this year.
The physical appearance and feel of the stores
continues to evolve, inspired by the motto “Look
Good, Feel Great, Have Fun!” Those opening
this year are “generation six”, with a brighter,
more contemporary design and layout. As with
mobile phone services, the speed at which each
new generation of stores comes on stream is
accelerating. Generation five was just two years
ago. Generation four was four years before that
while generation three was launched as long ago
as 2000.
Today, A S Watson is the leading global
presence in health, beauty and perfume retailing,
with more than 25 million customers shopping in
its stores around the world each week – and some
98,000 employees making it all possible.
A global committee led from Hong Kong
constantly studies and exchanges ideas on the
evolution of store concepts, based on customers’
shopping behaviours, and on cost-effective ways
to build and renovate stores. “While customers
will have different shopping experiences when
visiting our stores in different markets, the
local management teams all practise the same
customer-centric management principles,” Ms
Ngai added.
This customer-centric approach means that,
in today’s Hong Kong, Putonghua is readily
spoken by Watsons’ sales teams who serve a new
generation of tourists coming from the Mainland.
Vitamins galore are still on offer, as they were
decades ago in Watson’s The Chemist. Only, now,
they compete for prominence with an impressive
selection of sophisticated Chinese herbal remedies
and medicines.
A S Watson celebrates its
180th anniversary.
A S Watson Group has over 9,300 retail
stores in 33 markets worldwide.
2008 2011