Rexall

Founding

In 1902 Louis Liggett persuaded 40 independent drug stores to invest $4,000 in a retailers' cooperative called United Drug Stores, which sold products under the Rexall name. After World War I, the cooperative established a franchise whereby independently owned retail outlets adopted the Rexall trade name, and sold Rexall products. The company was based in Boston, Massachusetts, in an area now occupied by Northeastern University.

Growth

Justin Whitlock Dart, heir to the Walgreen's Drugstore chain, took control of Boston-based United Drug Company in 1943. The chain operated under Liggett, Owl, Sonta, and Rexall brands, which Dart rebranded under the Rexall name.

Rexall gained national exposure through its sponsorship of two famous classic American radio programs of the 1940's and 1950's: Amos and Andy, and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Both shows were often opened by an advertisement from an announcer portraying "your Rexall family druggist."

In 1946, United-Rexall Drug Inc. purchased the Renfro chain in Texas. It also launched the Owl Superstores chain. In 1958, the Rexall Drug Company was the largest U.S. drug store chain, with 11,158 stores (for comparison, there are less than 12,000 McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. today). Time Magazine noted that 2/3 of its stores were in areas where 1/3 of the population lived. However, this comprised more than 20% of all drug stores in the United States.

Dart sold his stake in Rexall in 1978. Dart had acquired stakes in Avon, West Bend, Duracell, Hobart, Ralph Wilson Plastics and Archer Glass, which were collectively known as Dart Industries (later Premark International).

Decline

In 1977, the Rexall chain was sold to private investors for $16 million.

The investors divested the stores, though existing retailers were able to keep the name. However, these tended to be weaker stores, and very few kept the name as time progressed. The company did continue to distribute vitamins, health foods, and plastic items.

Rexall-Sundown

Sundown, a maker of primarily suntan lotions, founded in 1976 by Carl DeSantis, marketed via mail-order, on store shelves, and other venues, including multi-level marketing. Sundown acquired the Rexall trademark in 1985 and continued to produce nutritional supplements and remedies under the new name Rexall-Sundown, with no relationship to the remaining chain of Rexall drugstores, nor to the Canadian maker of medicines and sundries.

As Rexall-Sundown, the company's market share grew rapidly, with revenues from the flagship product Bios Life leading all sales. RXSD went public in 1997 on the NASDAQ. It was acquired for US$1.8 billion in May of 2000 by Royal Numico, a Netherlands-based company which, at that time, also owned General Nutrition Centers (GNC chainstores) and Met-Rx, among other holdings.

Numico split up the Rexall divisions and divested them in 2003, selling the name Rexall-Sundown to a US vitamin company, and the Unicity Network division to Activated Holdings, a privately held company.

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