South Africa has a new dollar billionaire

Dis-Chem founder Ivan Saltzman and his family are now worth $1.3 billion after being ranked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the first time. 

This means Saltzman joins the likes of Johann Rupert, Nicky Oppenheimer, Koos Bekker, Patrice Motsepe, Michiel Le Roux, and Christo Wiese. 

While these are the billionaires recognised by Bloomberg, Forbes’ ranking also includes the Mouton family, which founded PSG and invested early in Capitec. 

Saltzman is unique in that he is still at the company he founded, serving as Dis-Chem chairman after retiring as CEO in June 2023. 

This kicked off a succession process, with Rui Morais stepping into the top job and Saltzman progressively giving up his various positions at Dis-Chem. 

At the end of June, he is expected to retire as chairman and completely leave the company he founded. The Saltzman family remains a significant shareholder in the pharmacy chain. 

The family’s billionaire status is a far cry from the R10,000 that Saltzman and his wife used to open their first pharmacy in the south of Johannesburg. 

Opening its doors in 1978, the Saltzmans were not opening an ordinary pharmacy, but were set on disrupting the tightly controlled industry. 

Born and raised in Port Elizabeth, Saltzman met his wife at the Johannesburg School of Pharmacy, which is now part of the University of the Witwatersrand. 

Both are trained pharmacists, but Saltzman was keen on retail from the beginning. Combining the two, the first retail pharmacy owned by the Saltzmans opened in Mondeor.

At the time, South African law strictly fixed the price of medication. When their pharmacy first opened, the Saltzmans matched these prices and offered the same experience. 

However, to give themselves a competitive advantage, they began selling non-pharmaceutical products to become more of a traditional corner shop with a pharmacy. 

This was the first iteration of the pharmacy model that dominates South Africa today, which the Saltzmans termed a “discount pharmacy”. Since that day, it has never been just about medicine.

The Saltzmans had a large ‘front’ shop that sold vitamins, cosmetics, and basic toiletries, with the pharmacy being located in the back. 

Dis-Chem hits the big leagues

Dis-Chem experienced rapid growth throughout the 1980s and 1990s as the couple experimented with stores in other areas of Johannesburg. 

They also gradually adopted more corporate structures rather than having the Saltzmans physically present at each store. 

Apart from the discount pharmacy model, Dis-Chem stores were also larger than many of their peers, offering shoppers a significantly better experience. 

The Saltzmans gradually brought in more partners and expanded the offering at Dis-Chem stores. 

Dis-Chem was privately held for a remarkably long period of time, considering its scale and expansion, with such growth typically seeing companies list on the JSE to get their hands on cheap capital. 

However, the Saltzmans kept ownership of Dis-Chem amongst themselves until they opened their 100th store in 2016. At this point, the pharmacy chain was generating revenue of R15.5 billion.

The Saltzmans were also looking towards the future, thinking about succession and how they could turn some of their shareholding into liquid cash. Thus, Dis-Chem went public in November 2016.

Ivan and Lynette stayed on in their positions of CEO and managing director, respectively, after the listing, with the couple holding around 29.31% of the company’s shares. 

The listing proved immensely beneficial for the company’s growth, with it more than doubling its revenue and store count in the decade that followed. 

It would also prove to be the beginning of the end for the Saltzman era at Dis-Chem, with the listing ushering in professional management and a formal succession plan. 

Saltzman announced he would step down as CEO in June 2023 after running the company for 45 years, with Morais replacing him. 

This kicked off a flurry of activity, with Saltzman distributing 217 million shares in Dis-Chem to his sons. A year earlier, Saltzman had sold R1.43 billion worth of shares to Coronation. 

Now, Saltzman is set to step away from Dis-Chem completely. He will step down as chairman and executive director at the end of June. 

“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,” Saltzman 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.” 

Today, Dis-Chem is valued at R29.9 billion on the JSE and is a major competitor to Clicks in the pharmacy retail space.