AS Watson plans to hire at least 225 employees as it opens more than 20 stores in Hong Kong this year.
The Hutchison Whampoa retail arm will begin its recruitment campaign tomorrow as it expands, mainly in the New Territories, to cater to the growing numbers of teenage and housing-estate consumers.
'The new shops will be small to medium-sized,' Watsons head of marketing Chris Lau Yuet-yi said. 'With the opening of new rail links and new housing estates, we want to expand into areas in the New Territories with a high population density.'
Watsons added seven shops last month, giving it 170 stores - 49 on Hong Kong Island, 57 in Kowloon, 55 in the New Territories and nine in Macau. Its three-storey flagship store in Causeway Bay offers 16,000 square feet of space.
'We are opening 20 to 30 shops this year,' Ms Lau said.
'Twenty is only our conservative estimation.'
Watsons, which already has 2,000 employees, aims to encourage greater self-service by putting more products on shelves rather than having promoters sell them from behind counters.