--- title: "Watsons China's First Sales Decline: Can a New Leader Spark a Rebound?" description: "On the evening of March 22, Watsons' parent company CK Hutchison Holdings released its 2016 financial results, showing that as of December 31, 2016, it operated 13,300 stores across 25 markets globally. In 2016, the retail business generated annual revenue of HK$151.502 billion, down 2.6% year-on-year. The health and beauty products business in China posted revenue of HK$20.914 billion, a 3.82% decline from HK$21.713 billion in 2015, marking the first negative growth for Watsons China." author: "联商网 罗秀玲" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2017-03-25" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/watsons-china-s-first-sales-decline-can-a-new-leader-spark-a-rebound-a9028877/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/watsons-china-s-first-sales-decline-can-a-new-leader-spark-a-rebound-a9028877.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/otTHAD8Zgpo0mCKVeGdQ2g" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%B1%88%E8%87%A3%E6%B0%8F%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E4%B8%9A%E7%BB%A9%E9%A6%96%E8%B7%8C-%E6%8D%A2%E5%B8%85%E5%90%8E%E8%BF%98%E8%83%BD%E8%A7%A6%E5%BA%95%E5%8F%8D%E5%BC%B9%E5%90%97-a9028877.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/watsons-china-s-first-sales-decline-can-a-new-leader-spark-a-rebound-a9028877/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Watsons China's First Sales Decline: Can a New Leader Spark a Rebound? > On the evening of March 22, Watsons' parent company CK Hutchison Holdings released its 2016 financial results, showing that as of December 31, 2016, it operated 13,300 stores across 25 markets globally. In 2016, the retail business generated annual revenue of HK$151.502 billion, down 2.6% year-on-year. The health and beauty products business in China posted revenue of HK$20.914 billion, a 3.82% decline from HK$21.713 billion in 2015, marking the first negative growth for Watsons China. On the evening of March 22, Watsons' parent company CK Hutchison Holdings released its 2016 financial results. The report showed that as of December 31, 2016, CK Hutchison operated 13,300 stores across 25 markets globally. In 2016, CK Hutchison's retail business generated annual revenue of HK$151.502 billion, down 2.6% year-on-year. The health and beauty products business in China posted revenue of HK$20.914 billion in 2016, a 3.82% decline from HK$21.713 billion in 2015. This also marked the first negative growth for Watsons China. **Watsons Hovering at the Passing Line** Watsons' performance in mainland China has been hovering around the passing line over the past two years. - In 2013, Watsons' year-on-year growth in China was 23%. - In 2014, Watsons' sales in China reached 16.31 billion yuan, up 14% year-on-year. - In 2015, Watsons' sales growth in China was only 9%, falling below double digits. - In 2016, Watsons' sales in China declined by 3.82% for the first time. Contrary to the declining performance, Watsons' store count has been increasing year by year. For example, in the past three years, Watsons' stores in mainland China exceeded 2,000 in 2014, reached 2,483 in 2015, a 19% increase year-on-year. By the end of 2016, the number of stores reached 2,929, an 18% increase from 2015, with a net addition of 446 stores. Despite the impressive growth in store numbers, weak sales remain a persistent problem. **The announcement showed that Watsons China's comparable store sales declined by 10.1% in 2016, a further expansion from the -5.1% in 2015.** **The Era of Kulvinder Birring** Although Watsons' performance was not impressive, 2016 is already in the past. Kulvinder Birring, currently the Chief Operating Officer for China, will replace Luo Jingren as CEO of Watsons China on April 1, 2017, fully taking over Watsons' China business. How Watsons, under Birring's leadership, will achieve a rebound in 2017 is the most pressing question for the company at this stage. However, Watsons has already initiated a series of bold reforms under Birring's guidance. In 2016, Watsons launched its eighth-generation stores, taking the first step toward change by reducing the proportion of private-label brands, cutting some domestic brands, and increasing the focus on cosmetics and imported goods. At the same time, Watsons began to pay more attention to the preferences of young people. The Watsons store in Shanghai Super Brand Mall not only retained popular private-label brands such as my party gal, letsaqua, Makeup Miracle, and the collagen series, but also introduced imported brands like MEMEBOX's self-developed trendy brand I'M MEME, Korean professional makeup brands LUNA, the SEAM, and DR.WU. It also expanded categories such as electronic products and fitness equipment. Regarding Watsons' development direction for 2017, CK Hutchison expects to open 1,000 new stores in 2017, with 65% of the new stores to be opened in mainland China and other Asian regions. This indicates that expansion remains one of Watsons' strategic directions. The financial report showed that Watsons' new stores in mainland China will mainly be opened in second- and third-tier cities such as Chengdu, Wuhan, and Hangzhou. In addition, through store renovations, store analysis, and cost control, Watsons is focusing on "revitalizing" mature stores in mainland China. In terms of store strategy, its retail business will continue to focus on promoting private-label brands, strengthening customer relationship management, and enhancing big data and e-commerce capabilities. Clearly, for Watsons, 2017 after the leadership change may be a rebirth, and it also marks the beginning of another era under Kulvinder Birring. Text/Lianshang.com Luo Xiuling -END- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671