Johannesburg – Health and beauty retailer Clicks Group is set to hold the largest retail pharmacy network in South Africa, with a portfolio of 632 pharmacies in the country, after it announced the acquisition of the retail pharmacy business of Pick n Pay, including 25 of its in-store pharmacies.
The acquired pharmacies will be rebranded to Clicks and the acquisition will help the health and beauty retailer to stretch its pharmacy footprints further compared to its direct competitor, Dis-Chem Pharmacies.
Dis-Chem grew The Local Choice to 110 pharmacies at the end of August last year.
According to Clicks chief executive Vikesh Ramsunder, the acquisition of the pharmacy chain from Pick n Pay accelerated the strategy of extending the convenience and accessibility of the Clicks pharmacy network.
“Currently 50 percent of the country’s population live within six kilometres of a Clicks pharmacy and we aim to improve this over time as we get closer to customers. We welcome the opportunity to bring our experience in retail pharmacy to customers of Pick n Pay,” said Ramsunder.
However, the transaction is still subject to approval by competition and regulatory authorities.
The proposed acquisition comes after Clicks added 16 new pharmacies in the six months to end February despite the continued disruptions accused by the Covid019 outbreak.
Clicks shared closed 1.40% higher at R250.53 on the JSE yesterday.
