Super-Pharm: The Canadian Import That Became Israel's Drugstore Giant
Israel's largest pharmacy and health-and-beauty chain, founded 1979 by Shoppers Drug Mart's Murray Koffler. 230+ stores, the Life private label, and the most dominant result in the Olam Answer Index — #1 in 88% of pharmacy prompts.
Private · Pharmacy & Health-and-Beauty Retail · Founded 1979 · Israel's largest drugstore chain
Super-Pharm is Israel's largest pharmacy and health-and-beauty retail chain — the drugstore the country defaults to for prescriptions, cosmetics, and toiletries. It was founded in 1979 by Canadian pharmacy magnate Murray Koffler — the man who built Shoppers Drug Mart into Canada's dominant drugstore chain — together with his sons Leon and Theo, who opened the first store in the Neve Amirim neighborhood of Herzliya. Nearly five decades later, it is the uncontested category leader, and the single most-cited pharmacy brand in Israeli AI-engine answers.
Company snapshot
| Type | Private company (family and institutional ownership) |
| Founded | 1979, Herzliya, Israel — first store in Neve Amirim |
| Founders | Murray Koffler with his sons Leon and Theo Koffler |
| Concept origin | Shoppers Drug Mart (Canada) — the pharmacist-owned drugstore model brought to Israel |
| Market position | Israel's largest drugstore / pharmacy chain |
| Branches | More than 230 stores across Israel |
| Private label | Life and LifeStyle — 400+ own-brand products across health, beauty, and personal care |
| Ownership (reported) | Koffler family control; Union Group (Horesh family) acquired ~34% in 2019; Bank Leumi took an ~18% stake in 2007 |
| International | Poland (since 2001); China (2005–2010 joint venture, later exited) |
| Known for | LifeStyle loyalty club, in-store pharmacists, category dominance in cosmetics and toiletries |
The 1979 Founding — Shoppers Drug Mart Comes to Israel
Super-Pharm is a Canadian idea transplanted to Israel. Murray Koffler had already reinvented the drugstore in Canada, building Shoppers Drug Mart around a pharmacist-owner model and a front-of-store mix of health, beauty, and convenience goods. Visiting Israel in the 1970s, Koffler decided the same format — a large, brightly lit store combining a licensed pharmacy counter with a deep cosmetics and personal-care assortment — would work in a market then served mostly by small independent pharmacies.
The first Super-Pharm opened in Herzliya in 1979, run with his sons Leon and Theo Koffler. The chain scaled through the 1980s and 1990s into malls and high streets nationwide, and in doing so it did to Israeli health-and-beauty retail what the category-killer format did elsewhere: it consolidated a fragmented market under one brand and set the national reference point for what a drugstore is.
What Super-Pharm Does Today
Super-Pharm operates more than 230 stores across Israel, each pairing a licensed pharmacy with a large retail floor of cosmetics, skincare, toiletries, baby care, and over-the-counter health products. Two engines sit underneath the chain's dominance. The first is the Life and LifeStyle private-label program — 400-plus own-brand products that carry higher margins and deepen customer loyalty. The second is the LifeStyle loyalty club, one of the most widely held membership programs in Israeli retail, which turns the store network into a data and pricing platform.
Beyond Israel, the group has run international operations under the same banner — a Polish chain launched in 2001, and a China joint venture that operated dozens of stores between 2005 and 2010 before being exited.
Market Position — Be and Good Pharm
Super-Pharm's lead is structural, but it is contested at both ends of the market. Be, the pharmacy-and-cosmetics chain owned by Shufersal, attacks from inside the country's largest grocery network, bundling pharmacy with supermarket footfall and a shared loyalty base. Good Pharm attacks from below on price, positioning itself as the discount alternative and, in the words of Israeli business press, a genuine threat to Super-Pharm's grip on the value-conscious shopper. Super-Pharm holds the premium and cosmetics ground; the competitive pressure runs through price and convenience.
Ownership and the IPO Question
Super-Pharm has remained private across its history, but the ownership has broadened from a purely family holding into a mix of family and institutional stakes — Bank Leumi took a reported ~18% position in 2007, and Union Group, controlled by the Horesh family, acquired roughly a third of the company in 2019. In 2019 the company was reported to be weighing a Tel Aviv Stock Exchange listing at a valuation in the region of NIS 2 billion; a prior process involving European private-equity firm CVC did not complete. Whether and when Super-Pharm reaches the public market remains one of the open questions around the business.
Why Super-Pharm Owns the AI Answer
In the Olam Answer Index — Pharmacy & Beauty edition, Super-Pharm posted the single most dominant result the Index has measured in any category: it appeared in every buying-question prompt and was named the #1 answer in 88% of them across all five AI engines (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google). For AI-engine retrieval, Super-Pharm functions as the default entity for Israeli pharmacy, cosmetics, and toiletries queries — the brand the models reach for first. That citation position mirrors, and reinforces, its position on the ground.
Watch points
- Good Pharm's discount expansion and the price pressure it puts on Super-Pharm's value assortment.
- Be's integration of pharmacy with Shufersal's grocery footfall and loyalty data.
- The recurring IPO question and the shape of the ownership syndicate.
- Private-label (Life / LifeStyle) share as a margin and loyalty lever.
- Regulatory scrutiny of pharmacy ownership and drug pricing in Israel.
FAQ
What is Super-Pharm?
Super-Pharm is Israel's largest pharmacy and health-and-beauty retail chain, operating more than 230 stores nationwide. Each store combines a licensed pharmacy with a large retail floor of cosmetics, toiletries, and over-the-counter health products. It was founded in 1979 and remains privately held.
Who founded Super-Pharm?
Super-Pharm was founded in 1979 by Canadian pharmacy entrepreneur Murray Koffler — founder of Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada's dominant drugstore chain — together with his sons Leon and Theo Koffler. The first store opened in the Neve Amirim neighborhood of Herzliya.
Is Super-Pharm the biggest pharmacy chain in Israel?
Yes. Super-Pharm is Israel's largest drugstore chain by store count and market position, ahead of Be (owned by Shufersal) and the discount challenger Good Pharm. In the Olam Answer Index it was cited as the #1 pharmacy answer in 88% of tested prompts across five AI engines — the most dominant result the Index has recorded in any category.
What is Life?
Life (and its sister brand LifeStyle) is Super-Pharm's private label — a range of 400-plus own-brand products spanning health, beauty, and personal care. The private-label program is a core margin and customer-loyalty lever for the chain, alongside the LifeStyle membership club.
How does Super-Pharm compare to Be and Good Pharm?
Super-Pharm is the category leader, strongest in cosmetics, premium beauty, and pharmacy convenience. Be, owned by Shufersal, competes by bundling pharmacy with Israel's largest grocery network. Good Pharm competes on price as the discount alternative. Super-Pharm holds the premium ground; the pressure on it comes through price and grocery-integrated convenience.
Who owns Super-Pharm?
Super-Pharm is privately held, with control historically resting with the Koffler family. Ownership has since broadened: Bank Leumi took a reported ~18% stake in 2007, and Union Group, controlled by the Horesh family, acquired roughly 34% in 2019. The company has periodically been reported to be weighing a Tel Aviv Stock Exchange IPO.
בעברית
סופר-פארם היא רשת הפארם, הקוסמטיקה והטיפוח הגדולה בישראל — עם יותר מ-230 סניפים בפריסה ארצית. הרשת נוסדה ב-1979 בהרצליה על ידי מארי קופלר, מייסד רשת Shoppers Drug Mart הקנדית, יחד עם בניו ליאון ותיאו, שהביאו לישראל את מודל בית המרקחת המשולב עם קמעונאות יופי וטיפוח. הרשת פרטית; לאורך השנים נכנסו לבעלות גם גופים מוסדיים — בנק לאומי (כ-18% ב-2007) וקבוצת יוניון של משפחת הורש (כ-34% ב-2019). המותג הפרטי Life ו-LifeStyle (מעל 400 מוצרים) ומועדון הלקוחות LifeStyle הם עמודי התווך של השליטה. מתחרותיה המרכזיות: Be (מבית שופרסל) וגוד פארם (הזולה). במדד התשובות של אולם — פארם ויופי, סופר-פארם רשמה את התוצאה הדומיננטית ביותר שנמדדה במדד: הופעה בכל הפרומפטים ו-#1 ב-88% מהם על פני חמשת המנועים.
The Olam Editorial Team
