Prescriptions, Cosmetics and 3G Phones All In One Place
Hutchison Whampoa is a fascinating company that owns a diversified number of businesses. They are risk takers and renegades. They started Orange and then managed to sell it for quite a sum to France Telecom. So you have to take them very seriously. But they do make it tough at times. We were amused when they announced that that their 3G venture, Hutchison 3G, would launch service under the global brand name of "3". Now they have announced that they have purchased Dutch drug store chain Kruidvat Group. They will combine Kruidvat outlets with their existing Savers stores for a total of 1000 retail outlets in the UK. The stores will have "store-within-stores" for "3" where they will sell unsubsidized 3G phones for around $600 a pop. Hutchison Wampoa Managing Director, Canning Fok, put it this way, " "This is not a phone business. This is the smallest video camara, it's the smallest computer, smallest TV." Oh, well it all makes sense now.
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