CEBU, Philippines — SM-owned health and beauty retail chain Watsons Philippines expands its presence in Cebu via opening more community-based stores.
Watsons Philippines director for health training said it will take a significant part of the company’s plan to open at least 100 more stores this year, of which 80 percent will be designed as community-based stores.
“We want to provide accessibility because we realized that not all customers go to malls,” said Lim in an interview adding that this year the retail chain is going to be aggressive in its health and wellness offering while consumers are also becoming more health conscious these days.
Lim was in Cebu to grace the second Watsons “World of Wellness Symposium” held in Cebu early this month.
He said Watsons already identified possible areas for store locations for its community-based stores in Cebu.
“We are now identifying potential sites for our expansion and for sure this will cover Cebu area,” he said.
A community-based store has an ideal size of 200 square meters, of which 150 square meters will be used as a selling area.
Its deep penetration to the mainstream market, by going closer to consumers’ homes, will also aid Watsons’ target to hit over two million card holders or member shoppers.
In Cebu, Watsons has about 78 thousand card members.
There are already 752 Watsons branches across the country to date.
The economic growth, which extends aggressively in the countryside areas is providing the company opportunities to expand the store’s network.
Meanwhile, Watsons according to Lim notes that the health and wellness segment of Watsons are growing aggressively, alongside beauty.
The company held a one day health symposium in SM Cebu City Trade Hall. The activity is just one of Watsons’ efforts to help improve the lives of Filipinos through imparting more knowledge on health and wellness.