Superdrug Stores plc (trading as Superdrug) is a health and beauty retailer in the United Kingdom, and the second largest behind Boots UK. The company is owned by A.S. Watson (Health & Beauty UK) Ltd which is part of the A.S. Watson Group. It was acquired as part of the buyout of Kruidvat BV in October 2002. The A.S Watson Group is itself part of the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings.
Superdrug trades from nearly nine hundred shops across the United Kingdom and Ireland, and also serves Denmark, Finland and Sweden online. The company employs over 14,000. Besides offering health and beauty products online and in shops, there are pharmacies with consultation rooms in over 220 shops, and a further 19 contain nurse clinics. It maintains links with sister companies also owned by A.S. Watson Group: Savers and The Perfume Shop.
History
Origins and expansion
In 1964, Superdrug was incorporated under the name Leading Supermarkets Limited by the Goldstein brothers in London, both of whom had experience working in the groceries retail industry. Later that year the business adopted the present name. The first Superdrug shop opened in Putney, London on 26 April 1966.
By 1968, there were three shops trading in Putney, Croydon and Streatham. In the same year Superdrug acquired its first distribution centre, in Wimbledon. The chain grew rapidly, and expanded to a chain of forty shops by the beginning of the 1970s. In 1971, The Rite Aid Corporation, an American chemist chain, acquired 49% of the business.
By 1981, there were three hundred Superdrug shops in the United Kingdom, and they opened their 11,148 m² (120,000 ft²) distribution centre and office complex at Beddington Lane near Croydon, Superdrug’s head office is still based in Croydon having recently moved to a more central location. This centre closed in July 2007, and the southern distribution operation moved to Dunstable, with the head office moving to new offices in central Croydon in 2017. The northern distribution operates from South Elmsall, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
In 1983, the business was floated on London's Unlisted Securities Market.
In March 1987, Superdrug was sold to Woolworth Holdings (now known as Kingfisher plc) for £57 million. The sale allowed accelerated growth of the brand through utilisation of Kingfisher's surplus high street property portfolio and substantial financial assets.
In January 1988, Superdrug acquired Tip-Top, a discount chemist chain which had a large presence in the north of England and Scotland, and Share Drug Stores plc, a southern-based chain. These acquisitions and an aggressive expansion programme saw the chain grow to six hundred outlets throughout the United Kingdom.
Superdrug continued to grow over the next eight 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 shops in prime retail locations.
Superdrug decided to relocate their head office in 2017, having spent more than 40 years at Beddington Lane. The company relocated to a more central location in Croydon having declared their love for the town, securing their future in the town, with a bigger and modern head office to develop the future of the business.
Acquisition
Facing increasing pressure from supermarkets and new discount chains, and following Kingfisher's failed merger attempt with Asda (which resulted in Walmart acquiring the latter chain), in July 2001, Superdrug was sold to Kruidvat, a chemist operator from continental Europe, to allow Kingfisher to focus on its DIY and electrical chains. Kruidvat was subsequently sold to A.S. Watson, the retail and manufacturing business of the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings, formally Hutchison Whampoa, in November 2002.
A.S. Watson is also the parent company of Savers, the United Kingdom's number three chemist chain. Subsequently, several of Superdrug's smaller shops were converted into Savers, and approximately three hundred Savers shops were converted into branches of Superdrug. In April 2006, Superdrug entered the Republic of Ireland, and began rolling out its "next generation" shops, the first of which opened in Uxbridge. These focused on cosmetics and fragrance above all else and used plasma screens throughout the shop. Superdrug announced their intention to create 150 more next generation shops in 2008. Since arriving in Ireland, the brand is now also represented in Douglas on the Isle of Man and St Helier on Jersey.