Dis-Chem CEO, Ivan Saltzman, retires after 48 years at the company — Venelize de Lange from media update reflects on the retailer's journey and what lies ahead for the pharmacy giant.
After decades as Dis-Chem's CEO, Co-Founder Ivan Saltzman stepped down from his executive director role last Tuesday, 30 June. The leadership transition started in 2023 when former CFO Rui Morais took over as CEO. While Saltzman will remain on the board as a non–executive director, his retirement marks a milestone for the company.
Dis-Chem was co-founded by wife and husband Lynette and Ivan Saltzman in 1978 with as little as R 10 000 of capital investment. The recently qualified pharmacists, having met in a lecture hall at the University of Witwatersrand, opened their first pharmacy together in Mondeor, south of Johannesburg.
Now, 48 years later, the privately owned South African pharmacy retail group has a turnover exceeding R 4-billion, 37 stores nationally and employing around 4 000 employees.
Their public story is picture perfect and their communications efforts clearly reap the rewards. The Saltzman's saw a gap in the market and made sure they were the company to fill it. According to the co-founders, their still premium-quality promotional items is what set them apart from competitors, making Dis-Chem customers' first choice when it came to choosing pharmacies to frequent.
This entrepreneurial mindset became the company's competitive advantage and their strongest communication strategy. The co-founders have sold millions of rands worth of Dis-Chem shares this year with Saltzman and his family now officially worth USD$1.3-billion and ranked for the first time among the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The company's new leadership will focus on expansion, digital innovation and strengthening its position in South Africa's healthcare retail market. This next chapter will be defined by how it builds on nearly five decades of entrepreneurial thinking — celebrating a rich past, but signalling confidence in what comes next.
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*Image courtesy of Canva
**Information sourced from Business Tech, Forbes Africa, Leader and Business Tech