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The two sons of Dis-Chem's founding couple have sold more than R642 million ($37.9 million) worth of shares in the pharmacy retail giant, just months after inheriting a combined stake worth approximately R6.8 billion ($401.7 million) from their parents.
Mark and Dan Saltzman each offloaded around 8.8 million Dis-Chem shares between January 6 and February 27 this year, Dis-Chem disclosed to shareholders on Wednesday in a Stock Exchange News Service announcement. Their combined sales came to R642.27 million ($37.9 million).
The brothers had not held any beneficial interest in Dis-Chem before June 2025, when their father Ivan Saltzman restructured the family's shareholding through the investment vehicle Ivlyn Local Investment Holdings. Under that restructuring, Ivan and his wife Lynette distributed 217 million shares to Mark and Dan, giving each of them a 12.62 percent stake valued at roughly R3.4 billion ($200.8 million) apiece at the time of the transaction. Ivlyn's interest in the company dropped from 29.31 percent down to 4.06 percent as a result of the move.
Ivan and Lynette Saltzman started Dis-Chem in 1978 with a single pharmacy in Mondeor, Johannesburg, bought with R10,000 in capital. Ivan had been working as a locum at the pharmacy, grew frustrated with how it was run, and bought the business himself. From that single store, the couple built one of South Africa's most recognizable retail brands, expanding through the 1980s, introducing private-label products in 1997 and listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2016 with more than 100 stores and R15.5 billion in revenue. By 2025 the group had grown to 333 stores and a market cap of roughly R27 billion.
The share sales by Mark and Dan come as the Saltzman family is in the middle of a broader generational transition at the company. Ivan stepped down as CEO in July 2023, replaced by Rui Morais, the group's former CFO. A third son, Saul, who had served as an executive director at Dis-Chem for 19 years, submitted his resignation from that role effective February 27, 2026, though he remains on the board as a non-independent non-executive director. Lynette stepped down as executive director in 2022, shifting to an operational focus within the group's beauty division.
Ivan himself is not finished entirely. He remains on the board and will step down as executive director in June 2026, continuing as non-executive director and deputy chairman of the group. Dis-Chem credited him with being instrumental in transforming the company from its origins as a family business into a JSE-listed retail giant. "I conclude this chapter of my life with enormous gratitude for the opportunity to realise a dream that started with a single pharmacy in Mondeor," Ivan said when his retirement from the executive role was announced.
Mark is a commercial lawyer and founded Saltzman Attorneys and Notaries in 2006. Less is publicly known about Dan. Neither of the brothers had held executive or board positions at Dis-Chem before they received their shares last year.
The sales represent a small portion of the stake each brother holds. Even after the combined R642.27 million ($37.9 million) in disposals, Mark and Dan each retain substantial positions in the company their parents spent nearly five decades building
