Watsons, Asia's No. 1 Health & Beauty Chain, Opens a New Store in Gangnam area (Seoul)

  • Watsons Korea opens its 4 store, ChongShin store, in Gangnam area on 6 January, 2006.
  • It is expected that the speed of store roll-out will be faster in 2006.
  • Various gifts including the multi-tiered GWP and 10% discount coupon offered for every purchase of 10,000 KRW.
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    Seoul, Korea (6 January 2006)

    GS-Watsons announced today the opening of a new store in the Gangnam area. It is the first Watsons store in the southern area of Han River and the Asia leading health & beauty chain's 4 store in Korea.

    Watsons Korea is operated by GS-Watsons under a joint venture between the specialised local retailer GS Retail and A.S. Watson, the operator of Asia's No. 1 health & beauty chain. It has set its foot in Korea for the first time in March 2005 by opening the first store in HongIk and later on rolled out to MyoungDong and Ewha. These three stores have received favorable feedbacks from Korean women who are very interested in health & beauty.

    The three Watsons stores in HonIik, MyoungDong and Ewha have successfully built up a strong customer base by attracting people from the nearby area. A high expectation is set for the new ChongShin store which is located in a high traffic business and residential area in front of the ChongShin subway station, a transferring station of lines number 4 and 7.

    Watsons' Ewha store offers about 5,000 health & beauty products including cosmetics, skin care, hair products, health food, general merchandises and confectionaries in a 65-pyoung sized store. More personal care and baby care products will be included in the 5,000 products offered at the 65 pyoung (2,300 sq-ft) sized new ChongShin store to meet the different demand of customers from the residential area of ChongShin.

    Gavin Walker, CEO of GS-Watsons, has expressed his enthusiasm in the Korea market, "Last year, we opened three stores and learn much about the Korean market as well as our customers. In 2006, we will expand our operation with a more active store roll-out plan."

    Based on the successful experience with the three stores opened last year, GS-Watsons is planning to expand its business more quickly with the right marketing strategies and product development that match with Korean women's tastes.

    To celebrate the ChongShin store opening, Watsons is offering various gift items including the multi-tiered GWP and 10% discount coupon for every purchase over 10,000 KRW at the new store from Jan 6.

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    Editor's notes:

    A.S. Watson is a Hong Kong-based multinational company operating 18 brands with more than 7,100 stores in 34 markets. Watsons is the leading health & beauty chain in Asia operating more than 1,200 stores in 11 markets, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Macau, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, Turkey and lately opened in Estonia. It entered the Korean market with the opening of the first store in HongIk in March 2005.

    GS Retail is a multi-retailer under the GS Group. It operates convenience stores, supermarkets and department stores including, GS25 (2,000 stores), GS Supermarket (83 stores), GS Mart (13 hypermarkets) and GS Square (3 department stores). GS Group is an energy and retail group with a holding company, GS Holdings, and four subsidiary companies, GS Retail, GS Caltex, GS Home Shopping and GS Sports, and an affiliated company GS Construction. GS Group is ranked at the 7th in the business world.