Spar is set to ramp up its pharmacy front shop products, with a heavy focus on wellness as consumers choose healthier lifestyles.
CEO Angle Swartz said: “We are planning on developing a bespoke wellness concept in our pharmacies and Spar stores. [We will] focus on wellness products, as we think consumers are moving towards managing overall health, not just medication.”
Spar is a wholesale group that supplies groceries, building materials and medicine to franchises. Its competitors in the pharmacy retail industry are recording strong growth in non-pharmacy products such as baby products, wellness and personal care.
Spar Health, which contributes 2% to group revenue of R132.4bn, continues to grow, lifted by chronic medicine sales. Health business revenue for the 52 weeks ending September 26 rose 13.2% to R2bn compared to the prior period. Performance was driven primarily by Scriptwise and the wholesale channel, supported by the increase in chronic medicine. Chronic scripts grew 25% during the period.
Megan Pydigadu, Group COO, said: “We have big ambitions for our health business and believe we bring differentiation to the market for independent pharmacies and customers.”
She said the key to unlocking growth outside pharmacies into hospital networks is ensuring “we have a national footprint. We have made progress in the acquisition of Aptekor in the Western Cape, which will allow us to reduce our cost to serve and enable us to grow our footprint and loyalty in the region. We are on track to establish a distribution centre in KwaZulu-Natal in the second half of the 2026 financial year.”
In general, the South African retail space is highly competitive, consumers are spoilt for choice, so the retailers have their work cut out to outperform
— Stephan Erasmus, investment analyst at Anchor
Aptekor Group is a pharmaceutical wholesaler founded more than 50 years ago. It supports pharmacies, hospitals and doctors across the Western Cape, Northern Cape and the Karoo.
Spar is on track to open 170 pharmacies by September next year. Strong performance in the health business helped drive South African sales during the year to September.
Spar Southern Africa turnover rose 2.9% to R97bn. The groceries and liquor business reported a year-on-year sales increase of 1.9%.
Stephan Erasmus, investment analyst at Anchor, said Spar’s South African performance “was generally short of expectations, with quite muted top line growth, albeit in a low inflation environment”.
“In general, the South African retail space is highly competitive, consumers are spoilt for choice, so the retailers have their work cut out to outperform.”
Mohamed Mitha, investment analyst for Camissa, said the significant gap in sales growth between Spar’s retail stores and their corporate-owned competitors — primarily Shoprite and Woolworths — remains a key concern. Spar has 50 corporate-owned supermarkets and 50 liquor stores, of which Swartz said a portion will be sold.
Mitha said that historically the Spar franchise model has repeatedly demonstrated remarkable resilience through economic cycles, with astute franchisees consistently delivering strong growth even in challenging periods.
“Today, however, the model is facing intense competitive pressure, particularly from the enormously popular Checkers Sixty60 online delivery platform [part of the Shoprite Group]. This disruption is most evident in the upper- and middle-market Spar stores, which are struggling to achieve meaningful sales growth amid fierce competition from Checkers. With Checkers showing no signs of slowing its momentum, Spar stores face an uphill battle to lift their persistently low sales growth rates.”
The Spar Group entered into a partnership with Uber Eats to integrate its Spar2U delivery service on the popular e-commerce platform in March 2025, and this has already shown exceptionally strong uptake, said Swartz. “It is an increasingly important part of our portfolio ... The Uber Eats integration created an immediate convenience revenue without adding complexities to operations, and it is working. Total order volumes are up 136%.”
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