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Backgrounder
Our Humble Origins
The history of A.S. Watson dates back to 1828 with the opening of the Canton Dispensary. The small dispensary was formed as a clinic providing free medical services to the poor people of Canton or the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
No one could have foreseen that out of this simple store would grow a mighty empire. By 1841, the company moved to Hong Kong where it was renamed the Hong Kong Dispensary.
In 1858, Alexander Skirving Watson joined the Hong Kong Dispensary as Manager, becoming junior managing partner with responsibility for the dispensing side of the business in 1860 when his uncle Dr Thomas Boswell Watson became major partner. At the death of Dr T.B. Watson in 1861, Hong Kong Dispensary was leased to A.S. Watson and two other doctors, and from 1862 onwards, the name A.S. Watson was featured prominently with Hong Kong Dispensary. In 1871, the Watson family leased the company to Dr John David Humphreys and Dr Arthur Hunt, and thereafter trading was executed under the name A.S. Watson & Company.
Subsequently, the business was expanded throughout the region, with the establishment of a pharmacy and a soft drink factory in Manila in 1883 and 1884 respectively, along with a concurrent expansion into Mainland China. A.S. Watson & Company was issued the Certificate of Incorporation in Hong Kong in January 1886.
By the turn of the century, A.S. Watson, riding the whirlwind of South China Sea trade, had become a major commercial name in Hong Kong, Mainland China and the Philippines with more than 100 retail and dispensing stores.
The rapid growth has continued unabated, and in 1963, the Hutchison Group took a controlling interest in A.S. Watson. In 1981, A.S. Watson became a wholly owned subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL).
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