31 Jul 2025

Big Interview: Superdrug’s Craig Watt – ‘We watch with eager eyes!’

Chemist + Druggist Stand: C75

Chemist + Druggist

Craig Watt was 16 when his mum politely suggested he might like to earn some money. He spotted an ad for a pharmacy assistant at Superdrug. Now the newly appointed pharmacy director, he tells C+D what Superdrug has planned for pharmacy and the future.  

Superdrug was actually my very first job,” says Craig Watt. “I was 16 and, as most parents say, it’s time for you to go out and earn some money! So I started looking around my town for a job.” Ambling around, he noticed his local Superdrug was looking for a pharmacy assistant. And then luck stepped in. “My mum happened to be in the boys’ brigade with the pharmacist at Superdrug at that point, so there was a bit of a relationship there. So I went for the interview and the rest is history. I got the job.”

Naturally, he then spent “the next couple of years upskilling in the pharmacy world, just training while I was deciding what I wanted to do as a career. Then I actually started working my way up through the retail management side of our business first.” That included spending time as a member of the store management team in Glasgow. “We were expanding our pharmacy portfolio and had a pharmacy installed. So that kind of reignited my passion of pharmacy and I decided I was going to apply to universities to become a pharmacist.” Then, however, he left Superdrug for four years as “there were no roles at that point in Aberdeen”, where he went to study. But at the end of that period, he says, “I was applying for pre-registration, and I applied to come back to Superdrug, among other businesses, and ironically, they were the first to get back to me.” Fate again, but he says he “had such love” for the brand. “I couldn’t wait to come back. It was actually a bit of a full circle moment. I ended up doing my pre-reg in the store that I’d installed the pharmacy in as a member of the store management team years before.”

Read more: Superdrug launches ‘free walk-in’ teen skincare service.
That was in 2006, and he’s been there ever since. “I absolutely love the company, I love our brands, and I love our customers, so it’s kept me busy. I’ve done many roles since then and worked my way up through pharmacy manager, into regional manager, and then head of operations.”

“I then switched back to head office and looked after our nurses and our private services for a little bit of time before working as a retail manager for a number of years.” He says he was invited to come back to Superdrug’s pharmacy operations and to offer his thoughts on how it might change things in the post-Covid era.

“Then last year I was invited to take on the newly created pharmacy director position. That was an incredible honour and something which, all those years ago in 1996 at 16 years old, I probably would never have believed.”

Early noughties

A few things have happened in pharmacy since which have to be seen to be believed, and Watt has been around for all of them.

“When I very first started out in the early nineties and early noughties, I think pharmacy was in its infancy in terms of exploring either private or commissioned NHS services. I don’t think we were anywhere near as integrated into the healthcare ecosystem as we are now.”

“But I think what has developed over the years is the pharmacist’s role being recognised more as a clinician, rather than just a supply function, as well as being able to help both the NHS and the public’s health desires and needs in different ways.”

As for the biggest challenge, he says it was “probably the flat funding period we’ve had. But we have a new contract now, and it looks like community pharmacy is starting to get recognised for the value it adds.”

At Superdrug specifically, he says the last two years have seen it relocate a “number of our existing pharmacies from older, maybe less customer-dense areas of towns, to areas exactly where our customers want them to be.”

“We want to bring even more to the front within our bricks-and-mortar stores and that can offer us a way to talk to customers even more credibly. I think there’s a whole arena that we’re looking at playing into to make sure we can give customers the access they need.”

These include private services, and Watt says Superdrug is “particularly proud” of its “very successful online doctor business”.

Watt has been a “part of that journey since its infancy. It’s been phenomenal to watch our portfolio of services in that arena expand all the way from the very early days, when it was erectile dysfunction services, through to today, where we offer a plethora of services online. It really gives the customer the opportunity to engage with those private services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Most recently it launched a teen skincare service which is “something we’re really passionate about”, he says. “We’re keen to see how the business takes off and how the service lands with our customers. We’re hoping it’s going to be a great success, and that we’ve got the opportunity to roll it out more widely. We watch with eager eyes!”

Deep dive

More eagle-like eyes are currently focused on weight loss injections. As you’d imagine, a consumer-facing high street brand with a teen demographic is in a situation where it can do brisk but risky business. Superdrug is aware of the need for caution amid the excitement.

“We’ve worked really hard to make sure that we are constantly reviewing our procedures,” he says. “We want to make sure it’s what our customers want and need. We always try and offer a very holistic service – so not just the jab, but we also direct customers to advice on wider weight management opportunities.”

“Of course, if it becomes an NHS service, that’s something that we would absolutely look at to see if our customers would want us to provide it. If it was, then we’d look to see if we could make it work at Superdrug.”

The growing noise around weight-loss jabs, including the upcoming NHS rollout, saw Superdrug decide to gather “all our pharmacists and nurse teams together at our national healthcare conference at the start of the year to give them a real deep dive into our service,” he says.

“That was supported by both the prescribers and our clinical excellence teams, which includes our superintendent, to help upskill them.”

“We discussed what GLP-1s are and what benefits and risks come with them. But we also wanted to give the staff confidence in the service that we offer, and I’m pleased to say that it was exceptionally well received by our teams.”

“We also have really good communication channels in our business. I like to think we’re quite a flat hierarchy. So if there were concerns among the population, I’m sure that would reach us pretty quickly. But like I say, since we’ve given them the training, I can’t speak to there being any concerns that we’re aware of.”

Evolutions

More generally, he says the biggest challenge has been the “moving nature of pharmacy in the last 12 to 18 months. Particularly in terms of the previous flat contract and now, the evolution of how we move through that space. I think that exists for all pharmacy businesses.”

“But for us, we’ve got a really strong private side of our business – a strong retail arm – and a strong and developing NHS portfolio. So, as we move through the next few years, I think what we’re going to see is further evolution. We’ve got to make sure we have the right services for our customers, in the right stores.”

“I think what I’d like to see – and what we’re working hard on – is the development of our holistic approach to services,” he says.

“We want to make sure that when our customers come into any of our stores, they know how to access healthcare. Whether that’s buying some of our great products, which are a real staple in people’s medicines cabinets at some of the lowest prices on the high street, or how to access a healthcare professional, be that a pharmacist, nurse or pharmacy technician, in their evolving capacity.”

“In my opinion, there’s a Superdrug for everybody. It doesn’t matter what age you are or how you identify, we’re a very inclusive and hopefully a very accessible retailer and healthcare provider.”

“We’re making sure customers can access this range of services at Superdrug because we’re famous for value. So that’s something that we’re really passionate about and are working hard at. There’s more to watch in this space as the years go on.”