Farmacias del Ahorro buys Farmacias Benavides: what changes for Mexican pharmacies

Farmacias del Ahorro agreed to buy 96.56% of Farmacias Benavides from subsidiaries of The Boots Group, the pharmaceutical conglomerate controlled by the Sycamore Partners fund together with the family of Stefano Pessina, the companies announced on November 13, 2026. The contract was signed on November 12 between Comercializadora Farmacéutica de Chiapas, owner of Farmacias del Ahorro, and the Boots subsidiaries, according to Expansión. The price was not disclosed.

With the purchase, Farmacias del Ahorro, which has about 2,000 stores, will add Benavides' 1,132 pharmacies and end up with more than 3,000 in the country. The deal requires approval from the National Antitrust Commission and other closing conditions; in the meantime, both chains will keep operating separately, according to the companies' press release. This is what is known about the Farmacias Benavides purchase and what it means for Mexico's pharmacy market.

How Farmacias del Ahorro compares with the big chains

By number of outlets, the country's largest chain is still Farmacias Similares, with nearly 9,000 pharmacies, according to Expansión. Farmacias Guadalajara reached 3,084 stores at the end of the second quarter of 2026, according to Expansión, and plans to open 120 more this year. With about 3,132 stores combined, Del Ahorro and Benavides would be in the same range as Guadalajara, although the figures are from different dates and not fully comparable: Similares includes many franchised pharmacies and Guadalajara sells in larger stores that also carry groceries.

Source: Expansión (Similares and Benavides, using Benavides' third-quarter 2026 report), Expansión (Guadalajara) and the companies' press release (Del Ahorro). There are no recent, comparable public figures on market share by sales.

Who Farmacias Benavides and Farmacias del Ahorro are

Farmacias Benavides was born more than a century ago as a small drugstore in Monterrey and today operates 1,132 pharmacies in 203 cities in 24 states, with its strongest presence in the north, east and center of the country. It also has doctor's offices in its stores: the press release says more than 450 and Expansión says more than 500. It has been listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange since April 28, 1993, and has sought to delist since 2014; on May 26, 2026, the National Banking and Securities Commission began the process to cancel its registration, which the company says is still under way. It has been part of the Boots group for more than a decade.

Farmacias del Ahorro was founded in 1991 and has about 2,000 stores, all offering free medical consultations. According to the press release, it provides more than one million free consultations a month, gives away nearly 500,000 medicines monthly through its Monedero del Ahorro program, makes about 800,000 free home deliveries a month and its loyalty program has more than 20 million active users. Its co-founder and chairman is Antonio Leonardo Castañón and its CEO is Rafael Selvas Silva.

Who is selling Farmacias Benavides: The Boots Group and Sycamore

The seller is The Boots Group, which brings together the British chain Boots, the beauty brand No7 and Farmacias Benavides, plus a wholesale business in Germany that supplies more than 11,000 pharmacies. It is majority owned by Sycamore Partners, a New York private equity firm founded in 2011 with about US$18 billion in assets, in partnership with Stefano Pessina and his family. Pessina, 85, was a top executive at Walgreens Boots Alliance and has a fortune of US$8.46 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, cited by Bloomberg Línea.

The sellers also said goodbye to the chain. Mauricio González, managing director of Benavides, said the agreement opens "a new chapter" for a company built on trust over more than a hundred years. Ornella Barra, chair of The Boots Group, said she is confident that under its new owners Benavides "will continue to realize its considerable potential", and Dary Kopelioff, managing director at Sycamore Partners, called Farmacias del Ahorro "the right partner" to build on Benavides' foundation, according to the companies' press release. None of the parties disclosed how many employees Benavides has or whether its brand will change.

What is still needed to close the Farmacias Benavides deal

The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including authorization from the National Antitrust Commission, the body that replaced Cofece in 2025 and reviews whether a merger harms competition. The companies did not give an estimated closing date. Until then, the two chains remain separate, independent companies, so there are no immediate changes for customers: each one's stores, doctor's offices and loyalty programs operate as before.

Del Ahorro presented the deal as the return of "a pillar of pharmaceutical retail" to Mexican hands. "Once this transaction is concluded, we will leverage the combined strengths of both organizations," Selvas said in the stock exchange filing reported by El Financiero. The deal comes as the government promotes the sale of medicines at Farmacias del Bienestar and amid other regulatory changes for retail, such as the Digital Economy Law. For context on the health sector, see how much a doctor earns in Mexico and the ranking of health spending in Latin America.

Frequently asked questions

Farmacias del Ahorro, through Comercializadora Farmacéutica de Chiapas, which agreed to buy 96.56% of the shares from The Boots Group.

The price was not disclosed.

The companies did not announce closures. Until the deal closes, both chains keep operating separately.

By number of pharmacies, Farmacias Similares, with nearly 9,000. Del Ahorro and Benavides will have more than 3,000 combined, close to Farmacias Guadalajara's 3,084.