{"id":861885,"date":"2026-05-29T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=861885"},"modified":"2026-05-29T18:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T16:42:35","slug":"end-of-an-era-for-dis-chem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/861885\/end-of-an-era-for-dis-chem\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era for Dis-Chem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Retail legends Ivan Saltzman and Stanley Goetsch have stepped down as executive directors of Dis-Chem, which has faced a challenging 2026 financial year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saltzman resigned as an Executive Director of the Company, effective 27 February 2026. However, he remains on the board as a Non-Independent, Non-Executive Director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goetsch, who worked at Dis-Chem for 42 years and is also a pharmacist, is also retiring from his role as an executive director effective 30 June 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The changes at the board level mark a major shift for Dis-Chem, as the Saltzman family slowly steps back from control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Lynette also stepped down as executive director in 2022 to focus on an operational role within the retailer’s beauty category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, their son, Saul, had also formally submitted his resignation as an Executive Director of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2025, the founder’s other sons, Dan and Mark Saltzman, inherited billions of company shares as part of the founders’ broader restructuring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan and Mark then sold shares worth around R320 million between January and February of this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his stake, Dis-Chem has distanced itself from Mark due to now-deleted tweets, for which he has been accused of racism and sexism. The Human Rights Commission is investigating the matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial results<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Dis-Chem Founders Lynette and Ivan Saltzman<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

For the 12 months ended 28 February 2026, Dis-Chem Group revenue increased by 9.3% to R42.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s retail revenue grew by 9.0% to R36.6 billion, with comparable pharmacy store revenue growth of 5.3%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Net store changes grew by 9.0% to R36.6 billion, while comparable pharmacy store revenue grew by 5.3%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Net store changes included the opening and acquisition of 31 retail pharmacy stores and the closure of three baby stores. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This increased the retail footprint to 316 retail pharmacy stores and 42 retail baby stores at year’s end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 17-week period since the launch of the Better Rewards programme, which partners with Capitec, the group’s revenue increased by 9.6% compared to the corresponding period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wholesale revenue grew by 13.1% to R34.0 billion, with external revenue to independent pharmacies and The Local Choice (TLC) franchisees growing by 11.3% over the comparable period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent pharmacy growth was 7.2%, driven by both new customers and increased support from the current base, and TLC growth was 16.4%, due to an increase in TLC franchise stores from 240 to 280.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expenses over the period rose by 13.0% compared with the comparable period, with retail expenses rising by 15.7% as the group invested in new stores and innovation initiatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retail employment costs, when excluding the investment in X, bigly labs, increased by 10.3%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like-for-like retail employment costs stood at 3.5% as the company implemented a new staffing framework. It recently announced a Section 189A process for its head office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wholesale expenses also increased by 2.6%. The main increase in expenses relates to additional employee and courier costs from the expansion into the Long Meadow warehouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basic earnings per share (EPS) and basic headline earnings per share (HEPS) are 114.2 cents and 113.7 cents per share, respectively, representing decreases of 17.1% and 17.3%, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When excluding once-off property gain in the prior period, the drop equates to a decrease of 11.3% and 11.7%, respectively.

“Excluding the investment in the ecosystem and the non-recurring expenses in the current and prior periods, group profit before tax was up 20.1%,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial Metric<\/strong><\/td>Current Period<\/strong><\/td>Prior Period<\/strong><\/td>% Change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Group revenue<\/strong><\/td>R42.8 billion<\/td>R39.2 billion<\/td>9.3%<\/td><\/tr>
Earnings per share<\/strong><\/td>114.2 cents<\/td>137.6 cents<\/td>(17.1%)<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings per share<\/strong><\/td>113.7 cents<\/td>137.5 cents<\/td>(17.3%)<\/td><\/tr>
Final dividend declared per share<\/strong><\/td>15.92 cents<\/td>27.85 cents<\/td>(42.8%)<\/td><\/tr>
Total dividend declared per share<\/strong><\/td>45.34 cents<\/td>54.83 cents<\/td>(17.3%)<\/td><\/tr>
Group Profit before tax <\/strong><\/td>R1.8 billion<\/td>R1.5 billion<\/td>20.1%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Dis-Chem legends Ivan Saltzman and Stanley Goetsch are leaving their roles as executive directors, with the company’s leadership undergoing a massive change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":839548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[11649],"class_list":["post-861885","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\/861885","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=861885"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862019,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861885\/revisions\/862019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}