Chemist Warehouse deal boosts wealth of Gance and Verrocchi families on Richest 250 list
Six Victorians who sealed a mega retail deal over a pub pasta meal are now worth a combined $20bn this year, dominating the ranks of the county’s wealthy elite.
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Six Victorians who run the Chemist Warehouse giant retail chain are worth a combined $20bn this year, dominating the ranks of the county’s wealthy elite.
The group is split across the two families who have built Chemist Warehouse into one of Australia’s most successful corporations, the Gances and Verrocchis.
The two families merged Chemist Warehouse with the smaller ASX-listed Sigma Healthcare in late January.
The $34bn mega deal, which was sealed over pasta in a pub in Melbourne’s north, also publicly revealed their huge paper fortunes.
Brothers Jack and Sam Gance are worth a combined $8.77bn on this year’s edition of The List - Australia’s Richest 250, published by The Australian today, while Mario Verrocchi has estimated wealth of $7.65bn.
The trio started Chemist Warehouse in 2000 and have several family members involved in the business.
Sam’s son Damien Gance, the group’s commercial director, has wealth of $1.12bn to debut on The List, while brothers Marcello ($917m) and Adrian Verrocchi ($905m) also place for the first time. They are the chief marketing and chief media officer of Chemist Warehouse.
Gina Rinehart tops The List with an estimated $46.34bn fortune, and is one of a record 170 billionaires (including joint entries).
Total wealth for all the names on The List - Richest 250 this year reaches $689.52bn, and the average wealth is $2.76bn.
There are 19 new names, including 90-year-old Melbourne petrol magnate Andreas Andrianopoulos.
Andrianopoulos bought his first service station bearing the BP logo in 1970 and his AA Holdings, which has a network of 55 petrol stations, had revenue of $864m last year and made a $47m net profit.
The youngest person on The List is Robbie Ferguson, 28, the co-founder of tech firm Immutable.
The oldest is 101-year-old poker machine pioneer Len Ainsworth.
The cut-off to make The List sits at $635m, a mark reached by New York-based Rokt founder and chief executive, Bruce Buchanan.
Here are the wealthiest Victorians this year on The List.
Anthony Pratt & Family - $28.57bn
The cardboard box making and manufacturing magnate is now spending more of his time in the US, but sisters Fiona Geminder and Heloise Pratt live in Melbourne - where the trio’s Visy is based.
And where a messy legal battle over family fortunes is also playing out.
Visy is one of the country’s biggest private companies and together with the US based Pratt Industries, the family’s business empire has more than $10bn in annual revenue.
Alan Wilson & Family - $9.59bn
The Wilson family owns about two-thirds of the ASX-listed plumbing supplies business Reece, having maintained control of the business since 1969.
Alan Wilson was executive chairman for 21 years before retiring in 2022. His son Peter is now at the helm of the company, which has more than 600 stores around Australia.
Jack & Sam Gance - $8.77bn combined
The Gance brothers are one of Australia’s biggest and quietest success stories, building the huge Chemist Warehouse empire alongside Mario Verrocchi mostly out of the spotlight – until now.
The previously private giant executed a reverse takeover of ASX-listed Sigma Healthcare in a deal finalised in January. Jack and Sam Gance started Chemist Warehouse with Verrocchi in 2000, having already built a successful business with their own pharmacy holdings and the Le Specs (sunglasses) and Le Tan (sunscreen) brands.
Mario Verrocchi - $7.65bn
Verrocchi met and then worked for the Gance brothers as a trainee at their chemist in Melbourne’s northern suburb of Reservoir back in the 1980s.
He is now Chemist Warehouse’s chief executive and joined the Sigma board as an executive director with a 22 per cent stake in the combined listed business after it merged with Chemist Warehouse this year.
Sam Hupert - $7 billion
Dr Hupert is the co-founder of Pro Medicus with Anthony Hall.
The pair met in the 1980s when Dr Hupert was running his own general practice in Melbourne’s Coburg.
He convinced computer systems engineer Hall to go into business.
In 1984 they built a practice management system for doctors, listed Pro Medicus on the ASX in 2000, and later focused on radiology imaging software.
That strategy has been a huge success and Pro Medicus has become one of the ASX’s hottest stocks.
Originally published as Chemist Warehouse deal boosts wealth of Gance and Verrocchi families on Richest 250 list
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