Watsons has opened its doors at Doha Festival City, Qatar, as part of its expansion plans across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The GCC consists of six Middle Eastern countries—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.
Watsons, a health care and beauty care chain store in Asia and Europe, is the flagship health and beauty brand of the A.S. Watson Group, the world’s largest international health and beauty retailer operating over 16,300 stores under 12 retail brands in 29 markets.
The opening in Qatar follows launches in Dubai Mall, Dubai Festival City, Mall of the Emirates and Al Wahda Mall in United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Mall of Dhahra in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
In the Qatar store, customers have the chance to explore the nearly 3,000 sq ft ‘beauty-land’ with designated zones like Natural & Clean Beauty which features the Sustainable Choices products and an open makeup area so that customers can try out different looks and play around with a wide range of latest colour cosmetics.
Jonathan Watts, General Manager of Watsons GCC at Al-Futtaim, said Watsons signed a franchise agreement with Al-Futtaim in early 2020 “with the vision to bring fashionable and affordable beauty and lifestyle products to customers in the GCC region”.
“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic interruption, these stores were opened in less than 24 months – Qatar is a truly vibrant and unique market,” he said.
“While customers are getting more and more sophisticated about beauty and personal care, Watsons as the skin expert is delighted to bring our customers exclusive international brands. The excitement is overwhelming as customers have been eagerly waiting for Watsons to expand across the GCC via our offline plus online retail model, allowing beauty lovers of all generations to shop offline and online.”
With the purpose to inspire customers to ‘Look good, do good, feel great’, Watsons brings more than 200 brands together from around the world, offering everything from makeup and skincare to haircare to personal care. Close to half of its products are exclusive at Watsons, including brands from the UK, France, Japan, and Korea.
Some of the top pick brands include Deweytree, Holika Holika, Leaders, Superdrug, Target Pro by Watsons, and more.