Clicks is ramping up its pharmacy expansion efforts after resolving regulatory challenges that hampered its growth last year.
On Tuesday, the group said it had opened 11 new pharmacies in November and December, with the target being 40 to 50 new locations during the 2025 financial year.
This marks expeditious acceleration after a challenging 2024, during which licensing delays and a legal dispute temporarily stalled pharmacy openings. That followed a judgment by the Constitutional Court that found Clicks’ ownership of both pharmacies and Unicorn Phamaceuticals violated the Pharmacy Act, which prohibits businesses from owning both retail pharmacies and medicine manufacturing plants.
Clicks pharmacies contributed 27.5% to its total retail sales, increasing its market share to 24.2%.
Following Clicks’ sale of Unicorn Pharmaceuticals, the department of health resumed issuing pharmacy licences, enabling Clicks to renew its expansion efforts. The group has announced that it has since been granted 27 new licences.
In the 2025 financial year, Clicks is also expected to grow its specialised pharmacy brand, UniHealth, with plans to open 10 advanced 24-hour pharmacies with travel clinics.
In the 20 weeks to end-January 12 2024, the retailer posted an 8.1% increase in group turnover to R18.2bn.
The group’s retail sales, which include Clicks, The Body Shop and Sorbet corporate stores, grew 8.7%, driven by higher sales of private-label products, strong Black Friday promotions and increased consumer demand for front-shop health and pharmacy products. Comparable store sales rose 5.9%, with volume growth of 2.4% despite a softer performance in non-promotional sales and specific product categories such as Christmas gifting and home goods, it said.
“UPD continued to gain momentum following the completion of the large-scale systems implementation early in the prior period and increased wholesale turnover by 9.5%. UPD’s total managed turnover, combining wholesale and bulk distribution, increased by 3.6%,” it said.
With Thabiso Mochiko
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