The couple who founded a R30 billion pharmacy chain in South Africa

In 1978, husband and wife Ivan and Lynette Saltzman founded Dis-Chem, South Africa’s second-largest pharmacy, in Johannesburg.  

Today, Dis-Chem has a market cap of R30 billion, with 327 stores across South Africa, but it started as one small pharmacy. 

Ivan Leon Saltzman was born in 1950 and grew up in Port Elizabeth. He went on to study at the Johannesburg School of Pharmacy, which is now part of the University of the Witwatersrand, where he met his future wife, Lynette.

“We were doing a science experiment, and he lent me an eraser or something like that, and that’s basically how we met. We started dating quite soon thereafter, and we got engaged in our final year,” Lynette told Forbes Africa.

Although he qualified as a pharmacist, Ivan had always had an inclination towards retail, and he wanted to open his first store before the age of 30.

The opportunity presented itself while he was working as a locum at a small business in Mondeor, south of Johannesburg. 

Ivan was frustrated by the way things were done here, but he saw the store’s potential and thought he could make it profitable.

So, he offered to buy the store from the owner, and in 1978, Ivan and Lynette established a small pharmacy with a capital investment of only R10,000. 

“Everybody told me it was it would never get anywhere,” Ivan told CNBC Africa. However, it wasn’t long after opening that the store turned its first profit. 

“In the beginning, we had the same start, the same products, and the same prices as all the other pharmacies,” Ivan said, as reported by the Jewish Report.

“It became apparent to me that to be successful, to grow the business, our offering had to be different.” 

So, the couple decided to expand their product range beyond pharmaceuticals. 

“We were just anxious to start putting all these new things that weren’t in the shop before,” Lynette said. “People started coming into this tiny neighbourhood shop, and they wanted to see what we had.”

“We were always looking for new things, like putting earrings into the shop. The day we unpacked the earrings, we had queues of people.”

The store started making a profit almost immediately, and by 1984, it had opened its second store in Randridge Mall. 

While others were hesitant to open shops in the newly built shopping centre due to the high rentals, the Saltzmans seized the opportunity, selling medicine at discounted prices to grow their client base. 

“Towards the end of the 80s, we started discounting and expanding our front shop,” Ivan told Leader. 

“Lynette was always very supportive,” he said. When they opened the second location she worked half days while taking care of their young children. 

“As the children got bigger, she spent more and more time in  the shop and was eventually full-time, actually running stores.”

The first store Lynette opened and ran was in Fourways.

“I remember Ivan saying to someone ‘Lynette is running a store with a R2 million a month turnover’, and it was just the most amazing thing that we could get to that sort of level,” she said. 

The 1990s were marked by aggressive expansion in Johannesburg and Pretoria, with the business relying on the tried-and-tested formula of discounted medicine and non-pharmaceutical offerings.

The Dis-Chem stores were also always bigger than those of their competitors, which further added to their appeal.  

As things evolved, the Saltmans brought in partners and divided the store’s categories among them, depending on what they were best at.

“So, being the only woman, I landed up with beauty,” Lynette said. 

Even though her focus as a pharmacist was more on healthcare, she decided to give it her all, which paid off. “And we have built it up into one of the major beauty destinations in the country.” 

The business continued to diversify and expand, adding its own private-label offerings in 1997, establishing the Dis-Chem foundation in 2006, and opening its first franchise in Namibia in 2014. 

By 2016, the company opened its 100th store and the business was generating a revenue of R15.5 billion. 

They decided to list Dis-Chem on the JSE, which garnered a lot of excitement from investors. 

“Our decision to list on the JSE is an important next phase of Dis-Chem’s growth story. A listing will support our growth and allow us to better service our customers and other stakeholders,” Ivan said. 

“It also facilitates a partial exit whilst allowing existing shareholders and key management to remain materially invested ensuring strong alignment between management, existing and new shareholders.” 

“Lynette and I will continue to be financially and emotionally committed to the business and we will continue to lead Dis-Chem as CEO and MD, respectively.”

The business continued to grow remarkably in the following years, generating R36.3 billion in revenue in 2024 and opening 15 new stores. 

In 2022, the company announced that Ivan Saltzman would step down as CEO at the end of June 2023 after 45 years at the helm, and Rui Morais was appointed as CEO in July 2023.

However, their children remain involved in the business, and both Ivan and his son, Saul Eytan Saltzman, are executive directors at the company. 

“It is immensely gratifying for Lynette and me to have grown the business from a single store to what it is today, the largest retail pharmacy chain by market share in South Africa, with a network of over 300 retail stores and over 20,200 staff,” Ivan said. 

“I am confident in and supportive of the future leadership of the group who share the same commitment to the brand fundamentals that Lynette and I do.” 

“Together with Lynette, I look forward to doing what I enjoy – spending time in the stores and ensuring that our staff continue to provide the value and service that has made the brand what it is today. I will continue to identify opportunities to expand our store footprint.”