Founded in 1978 by Ivan and Lynette Saltzman, and now under the leadership of CEO, Rui Morais, the Dis-Chem Group has evolved into a diversified pharmacy group, providing health, beauty and pharmaceutical products and services. Since its listing on t...
RUI MANUEL MORAIS CEO of Dis-Chem Read more
The two halves of the Dis-Chem name will forever be separated by the hyphen’s cruel horizontal slash and that is just something we have learned to accept. More palatable is this trading update for the first four months of the second half: Group reven... More »
A so-so set of interims from Dis-Chem for the six months through August, with Group revenue +9.6% to R19.6bn YoY, with retail revenue growth +7.1%. Dispensary sales were a big earner, accounting for 37.3% of the Retail haul. No mention of internal in... More »
A cautionary tale this week from Dis-Chem which has removed from its shelves the Sol de Janeiro line of products that is majority-owned by posh French fragrance brand L’Occitane. The range was launched by Dis-Chem amid much fanfare, having found popu... More »
One of the interesting features about the rise of Dis-Chem has been its vertical integration of the pharmaceutical value chain, from financial services, to medical services, to wholesale, to actual product. And part of its growth strategy, following ... More »
Vertical integration, according to the Worthies at Oxford, is “the combination in one firm of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate firms.” It’s the Holy Grail for businesses with the ambition of owning everything in sight, a... More »
Founded in 1978 by Ivan and Lynette Saltzman, and now under the leadership of CEO, Rui Morais, the Dis-Chem Group has evolved into a diversified pharmacy group, providing health, beauty and pharmaceutical products and services. Since its listing on the JSE under Food and Drug Retailers in November 2016, Dis-Chem has achieved substantial growth and diversification, driven by a commitment to providing a pleasant shopping experience and employing an everyday low price (EDLP) strategy, primarily targeting health and beauty shoppers in the middle- to upper-LSM categories.
The Group's portfolio includes Dis-Chem Pharmacy, which has firmly established itself as a ‘trusted healthcare destination’ over the years. Since 2021, it has been extending its offering with the purchase of Baby City and Baby Boom, and more recently through a growing range of health insurance products under the Dis-Chem Health brand.
The Group also owns The Local Choice (TLC), a franchise group of independent pharmacies. TLC is supplied by Dis-Chem’s successful wholesale division, CJ Distribution, which also serves Dis-Chem itself and other independent pharmacies.