On Thursday, 14 May 2026, Dis-Chem (DCP) hosted a store visit to its new “Store of the Future” design at Melrose Arch Mall in Gauteng. We were provided with insights into how the group’s technology and innovation hub, X, bigly Labs developed the concept and how the new store performed in its first week.
The primary new feature of the store is the layout, which was designed in a ‘T-shape’ with all healthcare service offerings located at the back of the store, past the new Health Hub desk. The pharmacy design was intentionally changed to speed up the average time of servicing a client, with wait times at the pharmacy down from around 20 minutes to under 5 minutes per patient.
The new Melrose store was stated to be at least 20% more expensive per square meter than traditional builds of their size, excluding value engineering. However, management is happy to deliver this at the same cost with value engineering. The revamp cycle is expected to be fast-tracked, but the real estate will be stacked vertically, as new builds require more resources than revamps.
We caution the aggressive discounting model, which makes DCP the cheapest pharmaceutical retailer among its peers. While this can help to drive market share gains, this would require significant volume growth, in our view. However, these should be partly offset by onboarding clients to the group’s additional financial services products, which are how customers can unlock additional rewards and benefits.
While we were unable to test the new mobile app, management is in the process of testing and integrating its capabilities into the store’s digital journey with the app. The old app was built by a third-party provider, which introduced limitations on how integrated the app could be with the new store concept. The new app is being built entirely by X, bigly labs. We anticipate the launch will come during the 2026 calendar year.