Jean Coutu Group

Jean Coutu Group Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	: PJC.A
Industry	Drug Stores
Headquarters	Varennes, Quebec, Canada
Key people	Francois J. Coutu
Revenue	$2 874.8 million (2016)
Number of employees	20 000 (2016)
Website	www.jeancoutu.com

The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc. is a Canadian drugstore chain headquartered in Varennes, Quebec. The main distribution warehouse is, since 2016, located in Varennes, Quebec (after Longueuil 1976-2015); however, it has also had a large distribution warehouse in Hawkesbury, Ontario since 2005. It has more than 400 franchised locations in New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec under the PJC Jean Coutu, PJC Clinique and PJC Santé banners. The company was once the third largest distributor and retailer of pharmaceuticals and related products in North America, with nearly 2,200 drug stores. Its American stores have been sold to Rite Aid.

The company is also known for its private line "Personnelle", which produces a wide variety of products such as cosmetics, papers, and pharmaceutical products.

The company was co-founded in 1969 by Jean Coutu and Louis Michaud, as a pharmacy in the east end of Montreal.

The company became incorporated in 1973 under the name Services Farmico, enticed by the five branches already set up in Montreal. The name was changed 13 years later to its current name, the Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc., and was put on the stock exchange. In 1982 it entered the New Brunswick market and then the Ontario market in 1983. Beginning in 1987, the company began a series of acquisitions that continues. Over the past 20 years, the Jean Coutu Group has acquired Cadieux drugstores, twelve Cloutier Pharmacy outlets, sixteen Douglas Drug Inc. outlets, 221 outlets of the Brooks Drug Store, Rite Aid drugstores, retail properties, eight Mayrand drugstores, 19 Cumberland stores, and many more in the United States. The Jean Coutu Group was the first in Canada to set up an online service that allows customers to refill their prescriptions, then a year later expanded this concept by having the same system but that could be done over the telephone. Some of the titles this corporation has earned include “Canada’s Most Respected Corporations”, and “The Most Admired Company in Quebec”, which it has won seven times.