Watsons opened 4 new stores in the Panorama Mall, Al Hamra Mall, Nakheel Mall and The View Mall in Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), in 2022, adding to a total of 17 stores across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Currently, Watsons has 5 stores in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), 10 stores in United Arab Emirates (UAE), and 2 stores in Qatar. It is expected to further open over 10 new stores in the GCC region in 2023, bringing the total number of stores in the region to 100 in the near future.
According to Malina Ngai, CEO of A.S. Watson (Asia & Europe), “As a Hong-Kong based international health and beauty retailer, Watsons has already expanded to 14 markets outside of Hong Kong. We see opportunities to bring Watsons brand to GCC in 2020 and opened our first store in the Dubai (UAE) that year despite the COVID challenge. We then entered into KSA in 2021. Customers in Middle East like beauty and personal care products, especially our expertise in skincare.”
After reaching an exclusive franchise agreement with AI-Futtaim to launch Watsons in 2020, Watsons opened its first store at Dubai Mall in the UAE and entered KSA a year later. With a population of more than 36 million people, KSA is not only the largest country in the GCC region, but also one of the fastest growing consumer markets for beauty and personal care with a reach of USD4.64bn in 2022.
