David Kneale (CEO of Clicks Group Limited)

Clicks Group Limited is a specialist retail group with a portfolio that includes over 550 stores nationally, providing health, beauty and lifestyle merchandise, with a special focus on pharmacy.

Clicks was launched in 1968 when entrepreneur Jack Goldin opened the first store in Cape Town. By the time it listed in 1979, the Group had expanded to 30 stores nationally. After a series of sales (Score Food Group in 1988 and Premier Group in 1992), Malbak subsidiary New Clicks Holdings acquired the company in 1995.

The following year New Clicks Holdings listed on the JSE with a market capitalisation of R880 million. Malbak subsequently unbundled (1997) leaving New Clicks without a controlling shareholder. Subsequently, the Group diversified, acquiring several lifestyle brands including Musica and The Body Shop.

From the late 1990s, with the expected changing of the law to allow ownership of pharmacies by individuals (and businesses) other than pharmacists, New Clicks Holdings readied itself to achieve a long cherished dream: the integration of pharmacies into the stores of the flagship Clicks division. The first Clicks pharmacy was opened in Cape Town in March 2004. Today, Clicks is the largest pharmacy chain in South Africa with over 250 in-store dispensaries...MORE