The Chemist Warehouse empire has become a multibillion-dollar success story, capped by listing on the sharemarket this year.
The listing turned the founders into rich-listers and several staff into multimillionaires, allowing them to upgrade their residences all over Australia.
From left: Sigma Healthcare chief executive Vikesh Ramsunder with Chemist Warehouse founders Sam Gance, Jack Gance and Mario Verrocchi celebrating the company’s ASX debut in February.Credit: Louie Douvis
After merging with ASX-listed distributor and wholesaler Sigma Healthcare in February, the combined business now has a market capitalisation of about $33 billion.
The chain already has 900 stores but plans to open another 500 to 600 in Australia, the AFR reported, and has plans to open in Europe.
Jack Gance
This year’s standout purchase was by co-founder Jack Gance and his wife Evelynne who splashed $80 million-plus on a block of land in Melbourne’s Toorak with two houses on it.
The Toorak estate was listed for $80 million to $88 million.Credit: Kay & Burton
The block is widely tipped to be a development opportunity and could become one of Melbourne’s grandest mansions.
The Gances already own a sizeable block in the suburb, but their new purchase will give them the option of living on the same street as Jack’s brother, Sam, a co-founder of Chemist Warehouse, who owns a $43.1 million home there.
Another home owned by Jack and his wife Evelynne.Credit:
The personal wealth of Jack and Sam, and Sam’s son Damien (a non-executive director), is now valued at $11.27 billion on the latest AFR Rich List. It’s been a long road, after Jack and Sam bought a Melbourne pharmacy in 1972, with Mario Verrocchi joining in 1980.
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Elsewhere in Toorak, the Chemist Warehouse New Zealand boss Azman Haroon and his wife Razia slapped a caveat on a stunning Toorak home, which then settled in September in the name of his father, Abdul Haroon, and Saiaz Haroon, for $33,288,000.
Also in Melbourne’s east, Jason Yacoub, who owns a Chemist Warehouse in Warrnambool, paid $15.6 million for a Kew mansion in an off-market deal in August.
Mario Verrocchi
Co-founder Mario Verrocchi has bought luxury homes in more than one state this year. He is tipped to have paid $20 million-plus for a six-bedroom house in Toorak in an off-market deal from vendors David and Fiona Atkins. They paid $3.6 million for the residence in 2005.
Verrocchi is also tipped to have paid $23 million for the penthouse in the Hall and Campbell development in Sydney’s Bondi, where shareholder and chief operating officer MarioTascone is reported to have paid $25.1 million for the sub-penthouse.
Mario Verrocchi purchased a mansion in Toorak for more than $20 million.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
Verrocchi, who has a combined personal wealth of $9.79 billion with brothers Marcello and Adrian, based on the latest AFR Rich List, last month told the AFR it was strange adjusting to the public knowing how rich he’s become.
“It is weird, but what are you going to do about it? I didn’t steal it from anybody,” he said.
“It’s not like I robbed the bank or ripped somebody off and declared myself bankrupt. Everything I’ve earned I’ve earned. Literally blood, sweat and tears.”
Elsewhere in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Tony Bassaly, the general manager of franchise brands for Sigma Healthcare, and his wife Angela, paid $22.65 million in January for a three-bedroom beachfront Bronte home once owned by F45 co-founder Rob Deutsch. The fitness entrepreneur paid $11.2 million in 2018.
Tony Bassaly, the general manager of franchise brands for Sigma Healthcare, and his wife Angela, paid $22.65 million in January for the three-bedroom beachfront home in Bronte pictured here.Credit:
Damien Gance
The Belongil Beach home Damien Gance and Sasha Robertson bought for $33.5 million.Credit:
Not to be outdone, director, pharmacist and son of co-founder Sam, Damien Gance, and his wife, Sasha Robertson, paid $33.5 million for a glamorous Byron Bay house in February in cash – no mortgage required.
Copperstone in Bangalow.Credit:
He won’t be far from Brisbanite Brett Clark, AM, and his wife, Maria, who emerged on settlement documents in June as the $27.5 million buyers of Copperstone in Bangalow, inland from Byron Bay.
The Clarks bought the luxury equine retreat from Tom and Emma Lane, of the Oroton fashion family empire, who built the property from scratch after purchasing the 19-hectare farmland for $3 million in 2021.
Brett, a prominent Australian businessman and philanthropist, has a stake in Chemist Warehouse where he is now a managing partner in Queensland and NSW.
Damien GanceCredit: Jesse Marlow
Matthew Verrocchi
Matthew Verrocchi, the son of co-founder Mario and the managing director of Bondi Perfume Co, and his wife, Nicole, bought seven adjacent houses in Toorak for a combined $27.83 million and secured a planning permit to build a new residence.
The first purchase was in 2017, a $5.78 million contemporary home in Toorak, and the following year they bought the home of their next-door neighbour for $2.4 million.
The couple spent another $2.4 million in 2022 on the adjoining house to the south, in 2023 they bought out the neighbour on the north side of their original purchase, paying $5 million. Then in 2024, they added the next neighbour to the south side of their expanding footprint for $2.75 million.
Last year, they also spent $4.5 million on a property that backs onto their block. They have since added a seventh property, for $5 million.
Let’s not also forget managing partner Rami Saleh, and his wife, Elizabeth, who paid about $19 million for a seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion in Hawthorn with a tennis court, pool and media room.
Jeff Wasley
Brisbane-based Chemist Warehouse managing partner Jeff Wasley, and his wife, Tanya, emerged on settlement documents as the buyers of a $12.5 million mansion in Hamilton in June.
Jeff and Tanya Wasley’s $12.5 million mansion in Hamilton in Brisbane’s eastern suburbs. Credit:
The five-bedroom, four-bathroom home was designed and built by Queensland developer Graya and comes with a tequila bar, magnesium pool and spa.
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The Wasleys made headlines in October when they bought the New Farm home of RobGray, the developer behind Graya, and his wife, Meghan, for $25 million. Not only is it a house price record for Brisbane, it delivered the Grays a $16.5 million gain in just three years.
