- Jean Coutu Group
Infobox Company
name = Jean Coutu Group Inc.
type = Public
genre =
foundation =
founder =
location_city = Longueuil, Quebec
location_country = Canada
location =
locations =
area_served =
key_people = Francois J. Coutu
industry = Drug Stores
products =
services =
market c
revenue =
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equity =
owner =
num_employees = 16,000 (2008)cite web |url=http://zenobank.com/index.php?symbol=CA;PJC.A&page=quotesearch |title=Company Profile for Jean Coutu Group Inc (CA;PJC.A) |accessdate=2008-10-08]
parent =
divisions =
subsid =
homepage = [http://www.jeancoutu.com www.jeancoutu.com]
footnotes =
intl =The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc. (TSX|PJC) is a Canadian company headquartered in
Longueuil, Quebec with its Jean Coutu Group (PJC) U.S.A. Inc. inWarwick, Rhode Island . The company was once the second largestdistributor andretailer ofpharmaceuticals and related products inNorth America with 1,800 corporately owned drug stores, which have been sold toRite Aid and CVS. There are still 268 franchises throughout Canada.In the United States, Jean Coutu used to primarily operate along the east coast, trading as
Brooks Pharmacy inNew England and Eckerd Pharmacy fromUpstate New York andPennsylvania south to Georgia; however they sold off their US operations in a deal with Rite Aid and CVS. Coutu purchased Brooks in 1994 from the now-defunctRevco drug chain. (Revco had only acquired Brooks a few months earlier as part of its acquisition of Hook's-SupeRx, Inc, once a large operator of several pharmacy chains.) In mid-2004, Coutu acquired more than half of theEckerd store network (mainly units along the eastern seaboard) from department store retailerJ.C. Penney and has since continued to operate those stores under the Eckerd name. From 1999 to 2004 the chain was the second fastest growing retailer in the world. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4946448.stm] OnAugust 24 ,2006 Rite Aid announced that it would acquire 1,858 Jean Coutu's Eckerd and Brooks US operations for $1.45bn in cash and issuingstock giving Jean Coutu a 32% equity stake in Rite Aid. [http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B103AEE4F%2DC468%2D4F4C%2D9ECE%2D7DA89E506CD1%7D&siteid=] Rite Aid announced the acquisition completed onJune 4 ,2007 . [http://www.riteaid.com/company/news/news_details.jsf?itemNumber=928]The company is also known for its private "Personnelle" which produce a wide variety of products such as cosmetics, papers, pharmaceutical products, etc.
The company was co-founded in
1969 by the namesake, as apharmacy in the East end ofMontreal . In1973 Jean Coutu bought a warehouse and started thefranchising operations which would eventually make the company a pharmaceuticals retail conglomerate.Main competitors
*
Shoppers Drug Mart (Pharmaprix in Quebec)
*Familiprix
*Unipharm
*Proxim
*BrunetReferences
External links
* [http://www.jeancoutu.com Jean Coutu Group Official Website]
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