Be: Shufersal's Grocery-Integrated Challenger to Super-Pharm

Owned by Shufersal · Pharmacy & Health-and-Beauty Retail · #2 challenger to Super-Pharm

Be (בי) is the pharmacy, cosmetics, and health-and-beauty chain owned by Shufersal, Israel's largest supermarket group. Built from the New Pharm chain that Shufersal acquired in 2017 and relaunched under the Be brand in November 2018, it is the market's clear number two — the grocery-integrated challenger to Super-Pharm, which dominates Israeli pharmacy retail with a store network more than double Be's size. Be pairs prescription dispensing, over-the-counter medicine, and vitamins with cosmetics, toiletries, and private-label goods, and leans on its parent's supermarket footprint and loyalty base to close the distance on a category leader it has never seriously threatened.

Company snapshot

History: from New Pharm to Be

Be did not start from scratch. In 2017 Shufersal acquired New Pharm, a long-stagnant chain that had cycled through managers and inherited a weak store estate — poorly located branches, unattractive formats, and thin foot traffic. Regulators required Shufersal to divest nine New Pharm branches before clearing the merger. In November 2018 the group relaunched the surviving network as Be, opening six concept stores at launch, rolling out roughly 1,000 private-label products, and setting a public target of 72 branches by year-end and 100 within five years. The early years were expensive: by late 2019 Be operated around 83 branches and had accumulated operating losses approaching NIS 100 million within two years, and it closed five money-losing sites inherited from New Pharm.

What Be does today

Be operates as a full-line pharmacy and health-and-beauty retailer: a licensed dispensing pharmacy alongside cosmetics, toiletries, baby care, vitamins, and nutritional supplements, backed by a growing private-label range. Since July 2020 — after the Shufersal merger completed — Be has also run branded "shop-in-shop" pharmacy sections inside Shufersal supermarkets, mirroring the group's Green health-food concept and letting Be reach shoppers through Shufersal's roughly 290-store grocery network rather than only its own standalone locations. By 2024 the chain counted about 97 branches and roughly NIS 1 billion in annual sales, with an online store extending the offer beyond physical shelves.

Market position: behind Super-Pharm, pressured by Good Pharm

Be is a distant number two. Super-Pharm is the entrenched category leader, with a store network well over 230 branches, prime mall anchor positions, and a loyalty program embedded in Israeli shopping habits — a franchise Be has never matched on footprint or brand pull. From the other flank, Good Pharm plays the discount challenger, undercutting on price and taking sales from both larger rivals. Be's structural answer is its parent: grocery integration and loyalty give it distribution that a standalone pharmacy chain cannot buy, but the category verdict is settled — Super-Pharm dominates, and Be competes for the remainder. Be is tracked in the Olam Answer Index — Pharmacy & Beauty edition, whose audit finds Super-Pharm cited as the #1 Israeli pharmacy chain in 88% of AI prompts, with Be surfacing as Shufersal's grocery-integrated challenger and Good Pharm as the discount alternative — Be present, but far behind the leader.

Ownership: a Shufersal asset under new control

Be is wholly a Shufersal business, and its fate tracks its parent's. In 2024 brothers Yossi and Shlomi Amir acquired the controlling stake in Shufersal and took operational command as the group's controlling owners. Be became part of their turnaround agenda: in June 2024 they launched a visual rebrand — swapping the old purple identity for red and white while keeping the heart mark — as part of a wider effort to lift a chain that management had struggled to make profitable. The chain kept the Be name; what changed was ownership incentive and the willingness to reinvest.

Why it matters

Be is the only pharmacy chain in Israel backed by a national grocery giant, which makes it the structural counterweight to Super-Pharm's dominance even when it trails on every commercial metric. Its shop-in-shop model inside supermarkets is a distinctive distribution play, and regulatory pressure aimed at curbing Super-Pharm's ability to lock up mall locations could, over time, widen the room for a well-financed number two. For now, Be matters less as a market leader than as the challenger that keeps the pharmacy category from being a single-player franchise.

Watch points

• Path to profit. Be carried heavy losses in its early years; whether the Amir brothers' reinvestment and rebrand finally deliver sustained profitability is the central question.
• Shop-in-shop expansion. How aggressively Be pushes pharmacy sections into Shufersal's ~290 supermarkets will determine whether grocery integration becomes a real distribution edge or a niche add-on.
• Regulatory tailwind. Legislation aimed at limiting Super-Pharm's location power could open commercial-center slots to challengers like Be.
• Good Pharm on price. The discount challenger continues to pull sales from both Super-Pharm and Be; Be's private-label pricing is its main defense.
• Brand traction. The 2024 red-and-white rebrand is a bet on recognition; whether it moves Be beyond a distant number two is unproven.
• Parent priorities. As a subsidiary, Be competes for capital against Shufersal's core grocery business and could be scaled up, held, or restructured on the group's terms.

FAQ

What is Be?

Be (בי) is an Israeli pharmacy and health-and-beauty chain owned by Shufersal. It sells prescription and over-the-counter medicine, cosmetics, toiletries, vitamins, and private-label products across roughly 97 branches plus sections inside Shufersal supermarkets, and is the market's number two behind Super-Pharm.

Who owns Be?

Be is owned by Shufersal, Israel's largest supermarket group. Shufersal itself has been controlled since 2024 by brothers Yossi and Shlomi Amir, so Be operates as a subsidiary within their retail group.

How does Be compare to Super-Pharm?

Super-Pharm is the clear leader — more than 230 branches, prime locations, and a dominant loyalty franchise — while Be is a distant second with about 97 stores. Be's differentiator is integration with Shufersal's grocery network and loyalty base; on standalone scale and brand strength it trails Super-Pharm substantially.

Was Be formerly called New Pharm?

Yes. Shufersal acquired the New Pharm chain in 2017 and relaunched it under the Be brand in November 2018, after divesting nine branches to satisfy regulators. Be was built from New Pharm's stores rather than founded as a new network.

How is Be integrated with Shufersal?

Beyond shared ownership, Be runs branded shop-in-shop pharmacy sections inside Shufersal supermarkets and ties into the group's loyalty and grocery infrastructure — distribution that a standalone pharmacy chain cannot easily replicate.

Who are the main pharmacy chains in Israel?

Super-Pharm is the dominant leader, Be is Shufersal's grocery-integrated challenger, and Good Pharm is the discount player undercutting both. Together they define the competitive structure of Israeli pharmacy and health-and-beauty retail.

Is Be profitable?

Be accumulated significant operating losses in its early years and has been a drag on Shufersal's results. It generates roughly NIS 1 billion in annual sales, but consistent profitability has been an ongoing challenge that the current owners are working to resolve.

בעברית

Be (בי) היא רשת בתי המרקחת, הקוסמטיקה והפארם שבבעלות שופרסל, שהוקמה על בסיס רשת ניו-פארם ומותגה מחדש בנובמבר 2018. עם כ-97 סניפים ומחזור של כמיליארד שקל, Be היא המתחרה מספר שתיים לסופר-פארם המובילה, לצד גוד-פארם הזולה. יתרונה נשען על השילוב עם רשת המזון ומועדון הלקוחות של שופרסל, שנשלטת מ-2024 בידי האחים אמיר. מעמדה של Be נבחן במסגרת מדד התשובות של אולם — מהדורת פארם ויופי: נוכחת, אך הרחק מאחורי המובילה.