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Dis-Chem, the South African pharmacy chain founded by the billionaire Saltzman family, has lost about R7 billion ($432 million) in market value over three months, as weak annual results and the family's exit from control weighed on the share price.
The company's market capitalization stood at R32.8 billion ($2 billion) on May 27, two days before it released results for the year ended February 28. It has since fallen to R25.8 billion ($1.6 billion), with the stock sliding from R38.19 ($2.36) a share to R30.00 ($1.85).
The results disappointed investors even as revenue rose 9.3 percent to R42.8 billion ($2.6 billion) and the network grew to 316 pharmacies and 42 baby stores. Basic earnings per share fell 17.1 percent to 114.2 cents, or about 7 US cents, while headline earnings per share dropped 17.3 percent. The final dividend was cut 42.8 percent.
The decline in earnings came as expenses climbed 13 percent, with retail costs up 15.7 percent as the group opened stores and funded new initiatives. Dis-Chem invested R330 million ($20 million) to launch an innovation and research hub, X, Bigly Labs, which produced a new loyalty program and a Store of the Future concept in Melrose Arch. Stripping out that spending and one-off items, the group said profit before tax rose 20.1 percent.
The slump coincided with the founding family stepping back from the business it built over nearly five decades. Ivan Saltzman resigned as an executive director on June 30 and left the board entirely as a non-executive director on July 24. He had already given up the chief executive role in 2023, when finance chief Rui Morais took over.
His wife and co-founder, Lynette Saltzman, stepped down as an executive director in 2022, and their son Saul Saltzman resigned as an executive director last year and from the board this year. The company said Ivan Saltzman believed the timing was right to support board succession while the business built on its foundations.
The family has also trimmed its financial exposure. Sons Dan and Mark, who inherited shares in 2025, sold stock worth about R320 million ($20 million) between January and February. Separately, longtime executive director Stanley Goetsch, a pharmacist who spent 42 years with the company, retired at the end of June.
The changes mark the close of the Saltzmans' hands-on control of one of South Africa's best-known retail health brands.
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