BCBusIness.Ca 34 BCBusiness May 2014
This plain talk from the boss
squares with London Drugs' persona,
which retail consultant John Williams
describes as folksy—despite coming
from what's reportedly a $2-billion-a-
year operation (as a private company,
H.Y. Louie doesn't disclose financial
numbers). "They're anti-chain, anti-
corporate, and for a large section of
the population there's a comfort with
that," says Williams, a senior partner at
Toronto-based J.C. Williams Group Ltd.
"It's easier to love a local maverick than
a corporate cookie-cutter."
London Drugs' low-key brand iden-
tity may be deliberate, says advertis-
ing veteran Bob Stamnes, president
of Vancouver-based Elevator Strategy
Advertising and Design Inc. In a rare feat
for a major retailer, London Drugs has
"never screwed up," Stamnes observes.
"It really goes to show you how compa-
nies can garner a lot of credibility if they
do what they say they're going to do and
they act in a way that people come to
expect."
What the company is particularly
good at, according to Lindsay Meredith,
professor of marketing at
SFU's Beedie
School of Business, is selling products
that require a lot of direct customer
interaction. Those exchanges, he says,
build so-called relationship market-
ing: "Relationships between people are
based on things like trust and interac-
tion and consideration. So it's not sur-
prising these guys would come out with
loyal customers who rank them high on
trust."
Meredith thinks London Drugs has
survived against competitors such as
Target Corp. and Walmart by insulating
Pharmacist Sam
Bass opens the
fi rst London
Drugs store on
Main Street in
Vancouver.
19 4 5
The store takes the
unusual step of adding
photographic equipment.
19 5 3
U.S. retailer
Daylin Inc.
purchases
London Drugs.
19 6 8
Led by
Vancouver
entrepreneur
Tong Louie,
H.Y. Louie Group
Co. Ltd. buys the
company from Daylin,
which had fi led for
bankruptcy in 1975.
19 76
T H E L O N D O N D R U G S E V O L U T I O N
London Drugs
opens its second
and third loca-
tions, in down-
town Vancouver
and in New
Westminster.
19 6 0 s
The company starts
selling consumer
electronics and expands
into Alberta. By 1975, it
has nine locations.
19 70 s
37,000
Typical square footage
of a London Drugs store
7,000
Approximate number of employees
78
Number
of stores
27
Number of
locations
outside
of B.C.
p30-37_BestBrands_may.indd 34 2014-04-09 3:13 PM
