Superdrug
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Superdrug, the UK's number two health and beauty chain behind Boots, was founded in 1966 when the two brothers, Ronald and Peter Goldstein, opened their first store in Putney High Street, London.
The chain grew rapidly and in less than a decade grew to a chain of 40 stores. In 1971, The Rite Aid Corporation, an American drugstore chain, acquired 49% of the business.
By 1981 the chain had grown to 100 stores and opened its 120,000 ft² (11,148 m²) distribution centre and office complex at Beddington Lane in Croydon. This, and another distribution centre in Pontefract, still service the chain today. Later this year, the business was floated on London's AIM stock market.
In 1987 Superdrug was sold to Woolworth Holdings (now known as Kingfisher PLC) for £257 million. This allowed accelerated growth of the brand through utilisation of Kingfisher's surplus high street property portfolio and substantial financial assets. In this year Superdrug acquired Tip-Tip, a discount drugstore chain which had a large presence in the north of England and Scotland, and ShareDrug, a southern based chain. These acquisitions and a continually aggressive expansion programme saw the chain grow to 600 outlets throughout the UK.
Superdrug continued to grow over the next 8 years increasing profitability and market share. In 1995 the company began a rebranding programme which saw it leave behind its discount heritage and move upmarket, with a new corporate identity - under the banner "the real beauty is the price" - and new larger stores in prime retail locations. This led to a marked increase in prices in order to fund a higher cost base. This left the chain vulnerable to attack from new discount chains such as Savers and Wilkinson's, who were rapidly expanding at the time and the supermarkets such as Tesco and ASDA who were growing their presence in the high margin non-food sector.
Facing increasing pressure from supermarkets and new discount chains Superdrug was sold to Kruidvat, a drugstore operator from continental Europe to allow Kingfisher to focus on its DIY and electrical chains.
Kruidvat, was subseqently sold to A.S. Watson, the retail and manufacturing business of the Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa in 2002. AS Watson are also the parent company of Savers, the UK's number three drugstore chain.
In 2003 Superdrug, in conjunction with Hutchison's international branding function (behind brands such as PowWow and Orange), launched another rebranding campaign which saw all stores being rebranded in the new "you star" style.
A store-by-store review was conducted as part of this exercise and many of Superdrug's smaller stores were converted to the Savers format.
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