Adios to the mom-and-pop chemists

There is still growth potential in the pharmaceutical retail market in terms of store rollout for dominant players such as Clicks and Dis-Chem, but the pool of independent pharmacies available for acquisition is beginning to shrink.

This means that the larger chains, which have already snapped up a lot of independent stores, will increasingly look to grow by opening new shops instead of buying existing outlets and rebranding them...