Adcock Ingram is a South African pharmaceutical manufacturer listed on the

Johannesburg Stock Exchange JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is located in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, after it moved from downtown Johannesburg in 2000. In 2003 ...

. Adcock Ingram manufactures and markets healthcare products to both the private and public sectors.

Company organization

In 1995, five divisions comprised the company: critical care, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, wholesale products and an international division; the international division was created to manage the company's first marketing foray outside of South Africa. the international division later disappeared as a transitional unit, leaving the four core units in place. The company's office in

Leicester, England Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

was established in August 1993, with a staff of two people. Jonathan Louw led the company's pharmaceuticals division from 2002, at which time the company's CEO was Mike Norris. Louw became the firm's CEO in 2006, and Norris retired shortly thereafter. Louw continued as CEO until at least 2013.

History

Adcock Ingram started as a pharmacy in

Krugersdorp Krugersdorp (Afrikaans for ''Kruger's Town'') is a mining city in the West Rand, Gauteng Province, South Africa founded in 1887 by Marthinus Pretorius. Following the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, a need arose for a major town in the west ...

operating under the name EJ Adcock Pharmacy in 1890. Krugersdorp at the turn of the century was a "bustling pioneer town". In the early 1900s, Hyme Tannenbaum was apprenticed to then owner, Jack Blair. Hyme's brothers Jack, Len and Archie soon followed him into the pharmacy, which they eventually bought. Beginning with this one small pharmacy, the Tannenbaum brothers built a cross-country chain of retail pharmacies, a pharmaceutical and toiletry manufacturing giant and a highly respected South African success story. Adcock Ingram was first listed on the

in 1950, the first pharmaceutical company to list on the exchange. The company began internationalisation in the 1990s, beginning with the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, the former meant to be a springboard into

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. The company was sold to Tiger Brands for R3.4 billion, and became a wholly owned subsidiary in 2000. However, Adcock had been considered a subsidiary of Tiger Brands since 1978. The relationship with Tiger Brands enabled acquisitions in the 1980s such as the Mer-National division of

Dow Chemicals The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world. Dow manufactures plastic ...

Africa; a 40% share of Baxter's Critical Care Division; and acquisitions of Restan Laboratories and the South African interests of

Sterling Winthrop Sterling Drug was an American global pharmaceutical company, also known as Sterling Winthrop, Inc. in its last years (after the merger with Winthrop-Stearns Inc. which itself resulted from the merger of ''Winthrop Chemical Company Inc.'' and '' ...

. The company's acquisitions continued into the 1990s with Lepping, Laser, Pharmatech, Zurich Pharmaceuticals, Covan Pharmaceuticals and Salters. A merger between Adcock and Premier Pharmaceuticals took place in 1996, which placed Adcock as "the leading supplier of health care products in South Africa." 2001 saw Adcock's acquisition of medical diagnostics firm Steri-Lab, and Robertsons Homecare's acquisition came in 2003. By 2005, Adcock revenues constituted half of all revenues for parent firm Tiger Brands. However, growing friction between Adcock's portfolio and the strategic direction charted by Tiger led to Tiger's effective termination in investment in Adcock, which eventually led to divestment of Adcock in 2008, which was shortly followed by Adcock's relisting on the JSE exchange as an independent firm.

Company organization

History

Pharmaceutical brands

Pharmaceuticals

Health supplements

Research supplies

Health care brands

Hospital business

Consumer brands

See also

References

Further reading