Shoppers Drug Mart

For the Washington, DC area grocery chain, see Shoppers Food & Pharmacy.

Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation

File:Pharmaprix logo.svg
Company type	Public (TSX: SC)
Industry	Drugstore, Retail
Founded	1962
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people	Dominic Pilla, President & Chief Executive Officer
Products	Drugs, Health
Revenue	$10.376 billion CAD (2010)
Operating income	$897.0 million CAD (2010)
Net income	$590.7 million CAD (2010)
Website	www.shoppersdrugmart.ca
Footnotes / references Number of Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix stores: 1,241 Number of Home Health Care stores: 63

Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation (TSX: SC) is Canada's largest pharmacy chain with more than 1,241 stores operating under the names Shoppers Drug Mart in nine provinces and two territories and Pharmaprix in Quebec as well as in Hawkesbury, Ontario.

Founded by Murray Koffler, the Koffler family still retains ownership of the Super-Pharm pharmacy which is in Israel, Poland, and China, and uses the same logo as Shoppers Drug Mart and some of the same private-label brands, such as Life Brand and Quo.

Overview

Shoppers Drug Mart in Sussex, New Brunswick.

Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation is the licensor of full-service retail drug stores operating under the names Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix. Founded in 1962 by Toronto pharmacist Murray Koffler, the Company has grown to a network of more than 1,200 stores across Canada. These conveniently located stores are owned and operated by licensed Associate-owners, who have helped build a brand that is synonymous with exceptional service, value and trust. The Company also licenses or owns 58 medical clinic pharmacies operating under the names Shoppers Simply Pharmacy and Pharmaprix Simplement Sants, as well as eight luxury beauty destinations operations as Murale.

With fiscal 2011 sales of approximately $10.5 billion, the Company is the leader in Canada’s retail drug store marketplace and is the number one provider of pharmacy products and services. Shoppers Drug Mart has successfully leveraged its leadership position in pharmacy and its convenient store locations to capture a significant share of the market in front store merchandise, including over-the-counter medications, health and beauty aids, cosmetics and fragrances, seasonal products and everyday household essentials. The Company offers a broad range of high quality private label products including Life Brand®, Quo®, Etival® Laboratoire, Baléa®, Everyday Market®, Simply Food®, Nativa® and Bio-Life®, among others, and the Shoppers Optimum® program, one of the largest retail loyalty programs in Canada.

As well, the Company owns and operates 63 Shoppers Home Health Care® stores, which are engaged in the sale and service of assisted-living devices and equipment to institutional and retail customers. In addition to its retail network, the Company owns Shoppers Drug Mart Specialty Health Network Inc., a provider of specialty drug distribution, pharmacy and comprehensive patient support services, and MediSystem Technologies Inc., a provider of pharmaceutical products and services to long-term care facilities in Ontario and Alberta. http://www.shoppersdrugmart.ca/english/corporate_information/investor_relations/press_releases/articles/feb_9_2012.html

While the hours of individual Shoppers Drug Marts hours vary, many are open until 10PM or mid-night; some stores are opened 24 hours for shopping convenience.

History

A Shoppers Drug Mart location on Dupont Street in Toronto, Ontario.

At the age of twenty, Murray Koffler inherited two Koffler's Drugs pharmacies in suburban Toronto (one in the Don Mills Centre shopping mall). By 1962, Koffler's had grown to a chain of 17 pharmacies, which he renamed "Shoppers Drug Mart" in the 1970s.

Koffler revamped the concept of the twentieth century “drug store” in Canada by removing the soda fountain and emphasizing the dispensary, requiring his pharmacists to wear starched white coats as a symbol of their professionalism. In the mid-1950s, he began acquiring other drug stores and organized them around a then-novel franchising concept: pharmacist “associates” would own and operate their own stores within the system and share in the profits. In 1968, Shoppers Drug Mart grew to 52 stores in Ontario by merging with 33 Plaza Drugstores. In 1970, Shoppers Drug Mart purchased 100 Cunningham Drug Stores in British Columbia and Alberta. 1972 marked the grand opening of the first Pharmaprix store in Québec. In 1974, Lord’s Supervalue Pharmacies 26 stores in Atlantic Canada joined the Shoppers Drug Mart family. In 1986 Shoppers Drug Mart bought Super X Drugstores, an Ontario-area chain of 72 stores. In 1992, the company bought up the Western Canadian chain Pinder's Drugs, and followed this in 1995 with a chain of 24 Bi-Rite Drug Stores based in western Canada. Also in 1995, Shoppers Drug Mart acquired 135 Big V Drugstores. In 1996, the first Shoppers Home Health Care store opens.

When Koffler retired in 1983, he sold the chain to Imasco. That same year, David Bloom, a former Shoppers Drug Mart Associate-Owner, was appointed Chief Executive Office of the Company. Bloom would lead the organization until retiring in 2001, having devoted a total of 35 years of service to the Company. During his tenure, the Company launched the Shoppers Optimum loyalty program in 2000 which quickly became one of the largest and most successful loyalty programs in Canada.

In 2000, after Imperial Tobacco had been taken over by BAT Industries (formerly British American Tobacco), Shoppers was sold to a consortium of institutional investors including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Bain Capital, Inc., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, Charlesbank Capital Partners, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, CIBC Capital Partners, and Shoppers Drug Mart's senior management and pharmacist/owners.

In 2001, Glenn Murphy was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. In November of that same year, Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation was publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In 2002, Shoppers Drug Mart introduced its first large format stores, with more space, a sleek and modern look, and a stronger focus on cosmetic products. Typically the cosmetics section faces the entrance, with the pharmacy counter at the back and a convenience food section, called Food Essentials, near the front cash. In most suburban areas, this new format takes the form of new or relocated store, typically stand-alone "big-box" locations as opposed to smaller mall or strip-mall locations.

In 2003, Shoppers Drug Mart introduced its first BeautyBoutique, setting a new standard for the industry with its open-sell display and unbiased approach to customer service in prestige cosmetic retailing. Today, there are more than 305 BeautyBoutiques across the country.

On April 26, 2007, Shoppers Drug Mart #1000 opened in Toronto, Ontario.

Shoppers Optimum

The Shoppers Optimum Card is a loyalty card program that is exclusive to Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix stores. Any customer can apply to be a member and collect Shoppers Optimum points that may be redeemed on purchases within the store. Shoppers Optimum members receive 10 points for every dollar spent at the store. This excludes the purchase of lottery, tobacco products, transit tickets and passes, prescription items, any products containing codeine, Canada Post products and gift cards (except Shoppers gift cards). Sometimes, Shoppers Drug Mart organizes special point events where customers receive 20 times the regular points when they spend a certain amount. In 2006, the Company introduced Secret Point Events. Optimum Card holders receive in the mail a flyer announcing the secret event prior to the announced date. They bring that flyer in on the secret day to obtain 20 times the regular points. Only online registered card holders receive the flyer.

Board of directors

• Holger Kluge, Chair of the Board of Directors, Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation
• Shan Atkins, Managing Director, Chetrum Capital, LLC (1)
• James Hankinson, Corporate Director (1)
• Krystyna T. Hoeg, Corporate Director (3)
• Gaetan Lussier, Corporate Director (3)
• The Honourable David Peterson, P.C., Q.C., Chairman & Senior Partner, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP (1)
• Dominic Pilla, President & Chief Executive Producer
• Dr. Martha Piper, Corporate Director (2)
• Sarah Raiss, Corporate Director (2)
• Derek Ridout, Corporate Director (2)
• David M. Williams, Corporate Director (3)

(1) Member of Audit Committee
(2) Member of Human Resources and Compensation Committee
(3) Member of Nominating and Governance Committee

Advertising

• "You're Gonna Be Happy." -- Early - mid 1980s
• "Everything you Want in a Drugstore" -- 1980s and the early-1990s
• "Take Care of Yourself" -- 2000 to 2002
• "Your Life Store" -- 2002 to present
• "Gifts Made Easy" -- 2006 holiday campaign

See also

• List of Canadian pharmacies
• Super-Pharm

External links

• Shoppers Drug Mart
• Pharmaprix
• Murale
• Shoppers Photo
• Shoppers HomeHealthCare