{"id":845607,"date":"2025-12-05T08:15:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=845607"},"modified":"2025-12-05T08:15:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:15:36","slug":"end-of-an-era-for-75-year-old-retail-giant-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/845607\/end-of-an-era-for-75-year-old-retail-giant-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era for 75-year-old retail giant in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ivan Saltzman, the founder of Dis-Chem, will step down as an executive director of the company in June 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

75-year-old Saltzman co-founded Dis-Chem with his wife, Lynette, in 1978 and stepped down as CEO in July 2023, where then-CFO Rui Morais replaced him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following his resignation from the executive director role, he will continue to work as a Non-Executive Director and Deputy Chairman of the group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dis-Chem stated that Saltzman had played a pivotal role in growing and transforming the company from its early beginnings as a family-owned business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retailer is now one of the nation\u2019s leading pharmacy and healthcare organisations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dis-Chem said that its visionary leadership has been instrumental in guiding Dis-Chem through decades of growth, innovation, and success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his tenure, he oversaw major expansions and store rollouts, regional diversification and the company\u2019s successful listing on the JSE in 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIvan has been a driving force in our company’s journey from day one,\u201d said Dis-Chem Chairman Larry Nestadt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is indisputably one of the retail giants of his generation who has transformed retail pharmacy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nestadt said that Dis-Chem is fortunate that Saltzman will continue to lend his wisdom and leadership as Deputy Chairman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saltzman said that it has been an extraordinary privilege to help build Dis-Chem and work alongside talented and committed people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the progress made in building a strong leadership team, it is the right time to move to a more strategic position,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I step back from day-to-day responsibilities, I look forward to continuing to support the company’s ongoing success as Deputy Chairman.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CEO Morais noted that Saltzman will be forever intertwined with the fibre of the Dis-Chem brand, and his presence remains entrenched in the leadership team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe built a brand, shaped an industry, but most importantly, improved the lives of millions of people,\u201d added Morais. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been a privilege to work with, learn from, and be inspired by him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Deputy Chairman, Saltzman will continue to serve on the board and provide wisdom based on his industry knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said his guidance will be instrumental as Dis-Chem continues its next phase of growth, becoming South Africa’s leading health authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big changes for the family<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Lynette and Ivan Saltzman – founders of Dis-Chem<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Saltzman family have seen their ownership in Dis-Chem change over the last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, it was announced that Saul Saltzman, son of Ivan and Lynette, had formally submitted his resignation as Executive Director of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change will take effect in  February 2026, with Saul remaining on the Dis-Chem board as a non-independent non-executive director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-founder Lynette also stepped down as executive director in 2022 to focus on an operational role within the group\u2019s beauty category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2025, brothers Dan and Mark Saltzman, the other sons of Ivan and Lynette, inherited roughly R6.8 billion in company shares, as per a border restructuring by the founders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the deal, the family investment vehicle, Ivlyn, held a stake of over 29% in the company. Following the distribution, Ivlyn\u2019s interest decreased substantially to 4.06%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan and Mark now own around 12% of the company each after having no stakes before the move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Dis-Chem said that the shares remained within the Saltzman family, maintaining the existing family ownership structure for the retailer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ivan Saltzman is stepping down as an executive director at Dis-Chem, with the retail giant taking up a new role on the board. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":828959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[11649],"class_list":["post-845607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-dis-chem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845607"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845616,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845607\/revisions\/845616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}