Jean Coutu Group

The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc. is a Canadian pharmacy chain based in Varennes, Quebec. The company operates over 400 franchised locations across Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick under the banners PJC Jean Coutu, PJC Clinique, and PJC Santé. At its peak, it was the third-largest distributor and retailer of pharmaceuticals and related products in North America, managing nearly 2,200 drugstores. The company formerly operated in the United States through its subsidiary, The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) USA, Inc., under the Brooks Pharmacy and Eckerd Drugs brands. These U.S. operations were sold to Rite Aid in 2007; although the subsidiary remains legally active under Rite Aid, all its stores have since been rebranded.

The company is also known for its popular private label, "Personnelle", which includes a wide variety of products like cosmetics, paper goods, and pharmaceutical items. Since 2017, the company's main distribution warehouse is based in Varennes, Quebec, taking over from its longtime facility in Longueuil (1976–2015). There's also a major warehouse in Hawkesbury, Ontario, which has been operating since 2005.^{[citation needed]}

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

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 allowing customers to refill their prescriptions, expanding the concept a year later with the same functionality 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.

With the majority of its franchises in Quebec, it is the province from which it receives most of its revenue, although it has also gotten a great deal of profit from the United States. The main competition are Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart, Wal-Mart, Familiprix, Brunet, and Uniprix.

Since the end of the 1980s, the corporation has merged and acquired much of its competition. It has become one of the leading companies in Quebec and has been growing throughout the other provinces and into the United States because of its successful integration of acquisitions. There are many different trademarks and they are continuously increasing due to these mergers. Jean Coutu is a public company and is listed under PJC.A.TO. on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In May 2013, Jean Coutu announced that it would move its head office from Longueuil to Varennes, because the present head office is too small. At a cost of $190 million, the new building will be near Autoroute 30 and it will be ready for 2016.

In September 2017, Jean Coutu announced it was in talks to be acquired by Metro Inc, a Canadian supermarket chain, for approximately C$4.50bn. The deal closed in May 2018.