Kruidvat is a Dutch retail,

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

and

drugstore A pharmacy (also called "drugstore" in American English or "community pharmacy" or "chemist" in Commonwealth English, or rarely, apothecary) is a retail shop which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacis ...

chain specialising in

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

and beauty products which also has branches in Belgium. The first Kruidvat was opened in September 1975 by Ed During and Dick Siebrand. Kruidvat Holding also owned

ICI Paris XL ICI Paris XL is a perfume shop chain founded in the late 1960s in Belgium. The name ICI Paris XL means 'This is Paris' and was derived from the train trips that were undertaken by the founders on their way to buy perfume from Paris. The XL refers ...

, and , in the Netherlands and Belgium. It also holds 50% of

Rossmann Rossmann, Roßmann or Rossman may refer to: Surname * Amy Y. Rossman (born 1946), American mycologist * Benjamin Rossman (born 1980), American-Canadian mathematician * Bubby Rossman (born 1992), American Major League Baseball player * Claude Ros ...

in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, in addition to

Superdrug Superdrug Stores plc (trading as Superdrug) is a health and beauty retailer in the United Kingdom, and the second largest behind Boots UK. The company is owned by A.S. Watson (Health & Beauty UK) Ltd which is part of the A.S. Watson Group. It ...

in the United Kingdom since August 2002. Kruidvat Holding was sold to the Hong Kong based company

A.S. Watson A.S. Watson Group (or A.S. Watson or ASW) is the world's largest international health and beauty retailer, with over 16,000 stores in 27 markets worldwide serving over 5.3 billion customers every year, and over 137 million loyalty programme mem ...

in November 2002 for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

1.3 billion. Kruidvat’s headquarters are located in

Renswoude Renswoude () is a municipality and a town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. Topography ''Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Renswoude, June 2015'' Notable people * Jan Hendrik Waszink (1908–1990) a Dutch Lat ...

and their main distribution centre is in Heteren, of which construction was announced in March 2007. The acquisition of Superdrug was fully cleared by the European Union’s

Directorate-General for Competition The Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission, located in Brussels. The DG Competition employs around 850 officials, as well as a number of seconded national officials, among other from nation ...

in September 2002. Superdrug was initially sold to Kruidvat in July 2001.

References

External links

*
Kruidvat's A.S. Watson Webpage
Retail companies established in 1975 Pharmacy brands Retail companies of the Netherlands Dutch brands Dutch companies established in 1975 Pharmaceutical companies established in the 20th century Companies based in Utrecht (province) Renswoude {{retail-company-stub