Dis-Chem Pharmacies will accelerate its footprint growth with plans to open 34 new pharmacy stores in the 2027 financial year as it aggressively drives its integrated healthcare focus. Its new stores will follow the “Health Hub” concept store opened at Melrose Arch last month, which integrates pharmacy services, clinic consultations, financial services and digital healthcare tools into a single customer journey. During the reporting period, Dis-Chem added 31 new pharmacy outlets while closing three Baby City stores, bringing its footprint to 316 retail pharmacy stores and 42 baby stores. The Local Choice franchise expanded from 240 to 280 stores, reflecting a 16.4% increase. Retail revenue climbed 9% to R36.6bn, supported by comparable pharmacy store growth of 5.3%. “The group generated strong revenue performance in an environment where the consumer continued to be financially constrained, while improving total income margin and gaining market share across all core retail categories,” said CEO Rui Morais.He said the investments made by the company in its innovation business X, bigly labs, Better Rewards loyalty platform and the new Health Hub store format will enable the group to “lower cost and greater access healthcare delivery”. Dis-Chem invested R445m in its ecosystem initiatives during the year, with R330m allocated to X, bigly labs and Dis-Chem Life, which offers life policy services. These investments are expected to deliver net positive returns by the 2027 financial year. The Better Rewards programme, launched during the 2026 financial year, boosted revenue by 9.6% in its first 17 weeks. Morais said Dis-Chem is already seeing “tangible proof points from its ecosystem investments, including increased shopping frequency, higher participation across key healthcare categories, improved promotional efficiency and accelerating market share gains”.“Our ecosystem investments are aimed at transitioning the group from a pharmacy retailer to an integrated healthcare provider by positioning Dis-Chem as South Africa’s go-to health authority with the purpose of increasing access to and reducing the cost of care. We are creating an ecosystem that positions the group to play the dual role of healthcare provider and funder, using an innovative operating model to reimagine and disrupt the way South Africans access healthcare,” Morais said.The group declared a dividend of 15.9c per share.TimesLIVE