Do we like them?

Do we like Chemist Warehouse?

Discount pharmacy and health-and-beauty chain with 560+ Australian stores and others abroad. Based in Melbourne.

Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed. It is a huge, cheap, convenient chemist, but we'd hesitate while a tribunal has found staff underpaid and the case is on appeal.

Chemist Warehouse began in Melbourne in 2000, when Mario Verrocchi opened the first store with brothers Jack and Sam Gance. Forbes says it now has over 600 outlets across Australia, New Zealand, China, Dubai and Ireland. It has since opened its first London store.

It dropped its IPO plan and merged with ASX-listed Sigma Healthcare instead, completed in February 2025. Chemist Warehouse holders got about 85.75% of the merged group. The founders went onto the Sigma board, and Chemist Warehouse is now a wholly owned Sigma subsidiary.

The biggest current drama is pay. A South Australian tribunal found seven pharmacy assistants at four franchised stores were underpaid about $1.57 an hour. The union says that's a systemic problem and could mean tens of millions in backpay. In October 2026 the tribunal ordered payments, and the operators appealed.

It's not the first run-in. In 2015 the company behind its websites paid $32,400 in ACCC penalties over misleading 'save off RRP' claims on its own-brand products. A Fair Work Ombudsman probe in 2016 reportedly found about 6,000 staff underpaid. The ACCC later said it wouldn't oppose the Sigma merger.

So we land in the middle at 5. It's cheap and everywhere, and nothing here points to a safety or privacy disaster. But the repeated pay and pricing findings, plus the live underpayment case, stop us backing it with confidence.