[2] AS Watson had its beginnings as the Canton Dispensary and Soda Water Establishment, founded in 1828,[3] as a small dispensary with the mission to provide free medical services to the poor people of the Southern Chinese province of Guangdong (also known as Canton).

[citation needed] In a 2018 interview, chief operating officer Malina Ngai stated that free drinking water was considered to be of poor quality at the time, and therefore the company was able to establish a market for selling drinking water.

[3] In previous eras Watsons stores sold various kinds of general merchandise, but it became specialized in the pharmacy business as time went on.

In 1941, AS Watson celebrated its centenary just months before the Japanese attack and the fall of Hong Kong in December that year.

1981 saw Hutchison Whampoa Limited take full control of AS Watson becoming a wholly owned subsidiary.

[3] At the end of the 1980s, the company grew rapidly by entering Taiwan in 1987, Macau and Singapore in 1988, and re-opening in China in 1989, all under the name Watsons' The Chemist.

The year 2002 saw AS Watson expand into Europe and the UK even further with the acquisition of the Kruidvat Group, adding a number of different brands to its portfolio, including Superdrug in the UK and ICI Paris XL and Kruidvat itself in Mainland Europe.

During 2003 AS Watson signed an agreement to sell its European water operations to Nestlé, Superdrug opened its first new identity store in the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham, in the UK.

The group entered Turkey with the acquisition of Cosmo Shop and the first Watsons Health and Beauty Store opened in Korea.

AS Watson entered Ukraine through the acquisition of DC, and Marionnaud expanded into Asia with its first store opening in the Philippines in September.

[5] In March 2014, Hutchison Whampoa sold an almost 25 per cent stake in AS Watson to Temasek Holdings, for HK$44 billion.