The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc. is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

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 medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

chain based in Varennes,

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. The company operates over 400 franchised locations across Quebec,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, and

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

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 North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, managing nearly 2,200 drugstores. The company formerly operated in the

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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 Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie, Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the South Shore (Montreal), south shore o ...

(1976–2015). There's also a major warehouse in Hawkesbury, Ontario, which has been operating since 2005.

History

The company was co-founded in 1969 by Jean Coutu and Louis Michaud, as a

in the east end of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

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.

Jean Coutu Group USA

Coutu's U.S. subsidiary,

Warwick, Rhode Island Warwick ( or ) is a city in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States, and is the third-largest city in the state, with a population of 82,823 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Warwick is located approximately south of downtown Pr ...

–based Jean Coutu Group (PJC) USA, Inc., operated primarily along the east coast, under the Brooks Pharmacy banner in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

and Eckerd Pharmacy from

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

south to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Coutu sold off its U.S. operations in a deal with Rite Aid in 2007. (Despite this, the subsidiary itself remains active as an in-name only subsidiary of Rite Aid Corporation, also notwithstanding the rebranding of the ex-Coutu chains as Rite Aids in 2007.) Coutu had purchased Brooks in 1994 from the now-defunct Revco drug chain. (Revco had acquired Brooks a few months earlier as part of its acquisition of Hook's-SupeRx, Inc, once a large operator of several pharmacy chains.) In mid-2004, Coutu acquired more than half of the Eckerd store network (mainly units along the eastern seaboard) from department store retailer J.C. Penney. It continued to operate those stores under the Eckerd name. (The remainder of Eckerd's stores were sold to CVS Pharmacy.) From 1999 to 2004 the chain was the second fastest-growing retailer in the world. In the second quarter of 2005, the company recorded a $19.7 million US foreign exchange loss on items related to the Eckerd acquisition. On August 24, 2006, Rite Aid announced that it would acquire 1,858 Jean Coutu's Eckerd and Brooks U.S. operations for $1.45 billion in cash and issuing

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

, giving Jean Coutu a 32% equity stake in Rite Aid. Rite Aid announced the acquisition completed on June 4, 2007. In July 2013, Coutu proceeded to the sale of its last shares of Rite Aid that it held. Jean Coutu no longer holds any shares of Rite Aid. In 2023, Rite Aid filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

. Despite Jean Coutu being separated from Rite Aid 10 years prior, Jean Coutu was still listed in the filing. On May 5, 2025, Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in 2 years, listing assets and liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion. Rite Aid will sell all of its assets as part of its procedure, as it overcomes financial challenges such as debt, increased competition, and inflation, including Jean Coutu USA.

Jean Coutu Controversies

In August 2022, a Quebec pharmacist made headlines by refusing to sell a customer emergency oral contraception, better known as the morning-after pill, because it went against his religious beliefs.

Main competitors

* Shoppers Drug Mart (Pharmaprix in Quebec) * Familiprix * Uniprix * Proxim

Notes

References

External links

Official Jean Coutu Group website
{{Authority control Canadian pharmacy brands Franchises Companies based in Quebec Varennes, Quebec Retail companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in Quebec Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2025 2018 mergers and acquisitions Metro Inc.