Dis-Chem expands national footprint, reports strong uptake of new loyalty programme

Dis-Chem Pharmacies has reported a strong performance for the half year to end-August 2025.

The pharmacy chain recorded Group revenue growth of 8.7% to R21.3 billion for the six-month period (2024: R19.6 billion).

Earnings per share were up 9.6% to 73.9 cents (2024: 67.4 cents) and headline earnings per share (HEPS) grew by 9% to 73.8 cents (2024: 67.7 cents).

During the six months, Dis-Chem opened 17 new retail pharmacy stores, resulting in 302 retail pharmacy stores and 44 'retail baby stores' operating as at 31 August.

The Group declared an interim dividend of 29.42 cents per share, an increase of 9% over the prior comparable period (2024: 26.98 cents).

Stephen Grootes asks CEO Rui Morais whether they are able to pinpoint if their increased revenue comes from new customers or existing ones spending more money at Dis-Chem stores.

Morais attributes the rise in earnings to a combination of both factors.

"As a function of our new stores we obviously get access to new customers as we extend our network, but at the same time we do see our loyalty basket growing, meaning the same customers are spending a little more in our stores... and specifically our ecosystem, which we're very focused on - how do we get consumer spending across more than what is a physical store (for example in Dis-Chem Life Cover)."

Dis-Chem also launched its new loyalty programme 'Better Rewards' during the trading period, for which Morais reports a very positive uptake.

RELATED: Better Rewards: Dis-Chem launching new loyalty programme 'with much deeper value'

While they're only nine or ten days into the programme, take-up has delivered above their expectations on all metrics, he says.

"That would have been volume growth that we're seeing from participating Better Rewards brands and the acquisition of new loyalty customers, which is up on a daily basis around 250%."

"And just anecdotally, which is also important information, the feedback we've received from the market around the level of discounts they're seeing and the loyalty which that 'buys', is something that was at the core of the design philosophy for the programme... It is fundamentally different to what exists in South African retail today."

Morais also explains the function of Dis-Chem's innovation hub 'X, bigly labs' - take a listen in the interview audio at the top of the article