Asia's largest health and beauty chain, Watsons, has made its first foray outside the region, buying a small operator in Turkey it plans to expand into a 100-store chain within five years.
Watsons, owned by Hutchison Whampoa's retail and manufacturing division AS Watson, operates more than 980 stores in Asia and has more than 3,000 outlets across Europe operated together with various retail brands such as Kruidvat, Superdrug and Rossmann.
Andrew Miles, the chief executive for health and beauty Asia at AS Watson, said the lack of a major health and beauty chain in Turkey provided a good opportunity to establish a strong presence in a country with 70 million people and a market worth US$1.5 billion a year.
The acquisition of seven-store chain Cosmo Shop would enable the group to open its first Watsons in Istanbul as soon as this month, he said. Re-branding of other Cosmo stores as Watsons would begin in the second quarter.
'Cosmo Shop is a profitable chain and an ideal platform for us to establish our footprint in Turkey,' he said.
Without disclosing the acquisition price, Mr Miles said the newly acquired chain carried a range of more than 6,000 products that were in line with the retail concept of Watsons.