Tod MaffinCanadian Commentator, From Far and Wide · Emotional Support Canadian

Is Rexall Canadian? Find out.

3 Feb 2025 · 1 min

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1:26

In this episode of the "Is It Canadian?" series, the narrator traces the lineage of Rexall Drugstore to determine its national identity. The story begins in early‑20th‑century Boston, where Louis Crow Liggett sold a tonic called Vinole and built a network of over 900 products. The Canadian connection appears when pharmacist Barry Katz and his son Darryl Katz acquire the Canadian franchise rights to the Medicine Shop chain, eventually establishing Rexall in Canada. About nine years ago the Katz family sold Rexall for $3 billion to McKesson Canada, a subsidiary of the U.S.‑based McKesson Corporation. Two months ago, Canadian private‑equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners purchased all 385 Rexall stores and the Well.ca e‑commerce site, bringing the brand back under Canadian ownership. The video notes Birch Hill’s diverse holdings, cites Rexall’s current workforce of roughly 8,000 employees, and ends with a call for viewer suggestions and social‑media follows.

Chapters

Welcome to Is It Canadian? The series where I tell you if the store you're shopping at is Canadian. Today: Rexall Drugstore. Rexall has a long history in Canada, but it started in the US at the turn of the century. Boston, to be specific. And it wasn't even a drugstore back then. It was a single product: snake oil. Not literally, of course. It was actually something called Vinole, a toxic reconstructor made of wine and cod livers. It was made by and sold by a guy named Louis Crow Liggett. He would sell the tonic and promise to include marketing for the stores that sold it in his own advertisements. Liggett grew that alliance for the next 50 years to more than 900 products, and that's when the Canadians showed up. Specifically, Darryl Katz and his father Barry Katz, who was a pharmacist. Together, they were already in the pharmacy business up here, owning the Canadian franchise rights to Medicine Shop, a chain that didn't have a big presence up here at the time, but had almost 1,000 outlets down south. Fast forward to about 9 years ago, when the Katzes sold Rexall for $3 billion. And who did they sell Rexall to? A company called McKesson Canada. But don't be fooled by the name, this is just a subsidiary of McKesson Corporation, owned by Americans in Texas. And that's how it went until not even 2 months ago. A company called Birch Hill Equity Partners bought Rexall, all 385 stores and its Well.ca website. What is Birch Hill Equity Partners? It owns a bunch of companies, a private university, a small regional airline, an energy supplier, even a knife sharpening business in the US. And yes, it's Canadian. Today, Rexall employs about 8,000 people. Tell me what store I should do next. Follow me on Bluesky and Twitch. And here is your daily bonus.