Longs is a strong local brand that some kama'aina believe is homegrown — and that's primarily why CVS Caremark Corp., which bought Longs Drug Stores Corp. last month, is keeping the Longs name in Hawai'i.

But the company also had another reason.

Rhode Island-based CVS apparently was concerned about being perceived as foreigners uprooting the localness of Hawai'i's long-dominant drugstore chain.

David Rickard, CVS chief financial officer, in a recent healthcare conference held by investment banking firm Credit Suisse expanded on the company's rationale for keeping the Longs name here but not on the Mainland.

"It's a very strong name," Rickard said during the conference Wednesday. "It's been there for decades. And it may seem hard for you and me to believe, but the indigenous Hawaiians have a term for people from the Lower 48 that is not complimentary."

Rickard didn't identify the term, but the company clearly has become familiar with at least one aspect of the local market.

"So saying, 'We're new, we're here from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, to improve your healthcare,' would not be a very effective marketing approach," Rickard said. "Longs has established itself as more or less a local brand, and it's thought of as a local brand, so we're going to continue to allow it to be used there."

CVS spokeswoman Carolyn Castel wouldn't elaborate on Rickard's insight, but said in an e-mail: "Based on our understanding of the Hawai'i market and the strong local brand equity of the Longs name and the lack of awareness of the CVS/pharmacy brand in Hawai'i, we determined not to re-brand the Longs locations in Hawai'i to CVS/pharmacy."

CVS completed its purchase of Longs on Oct. 30, and before that had said it would keep the Longs name in Hawai'i because of the brand's 54-year relationship with kama'aina consumers and its perception as a local company despite being founded in California by two Caucasian brothers with a name more common among Chinese.

CVS is the nation's largest drugstore chain by sales, and has assimilated some 5,000 acquisitions under the CVS name since 1990, including Arbor Drugs in Michigan and Eckerd Stores, mainly in Florida and Texas.

The Longs purchase included 521 stores in four states, including 39 in Hawai'i.

How CVS operates Longs in Hawai'i is particularly sensitive because of new competition from Walgreens, which yesterday opened its second of 25 to 30 stores envisioned for the state in which Longs historically had been pretty much unrivaled.

Walgreens is the second-largest drugstore chain behind CVS, with nearly as many stores. So being the "local" chain in Hawai'i gives CVS-owned Longs a significant advantage, retail analysts say.

Walgreens in September made a surprise bid for Longs, topping the offer by CVS, but Walgreens withdrew its bid after Longs officials said the Walgreens deal would be problematic because of store overlap on the Mainland.

CVS became the biggest drugstore chain in California and Hawai'i with its Longs acquisition, which allowed CVS to add stores in high-quality locations that the company estimates would have taken at least 10 years without Longs.

CVS also will try to enhance sales at Longs stores. Rickard at the Credit Suisse conference said sales at Longs in the first six months of this year equated to $626 per square foot of store space, compared with $834 per square foot at CVS stores.

Rickard said CVS has been able to boost sales for previous acquisitions, and noted one opportunity with Longs is that Longs has half as much private-label merchandise compared with CVS.

Integration of Longs with CVS is slated to begin in the first quarter of next year, so as not to disrupt operations during the holiday season.

On the Mainland, CVS expects to close the California-based corporate office of Longs by the end of next summer, and convert store names to CVS by the end of next year.