Wesfarmers Health moving up to SAP S/4HANA

Wesfarmers this week started a major SAP upgrade in its health business as it builds a unified technology platform for the multiple brands it acquired to create the division.

The company, which operates major retail brands including Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks, formally established Wesfarmers Health in 2022 after acquiring Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API), bringing Priceline’s pharmacies and its associated wholesale distribution business into the fold.

Since then, the division has become a vehicle for Wesfarmers to make further health-related acquisitions and establish its own operating identity.

Sources familiar with the matters told iTnews that the division is moving to consolidate the acquisitions by upgrading its SAP ECC ERP environment to SAP S/4HANA on RISE.

A spokesperson for Wesfarmers confirmed that the upgrade had commenced.

“The project forms part of Wesfarmers Health’s multi-year technology roadmap," the spokesperson said.

“This SAP upgrade will enable the business to leverage SAP’s latest capabilities, support future growth, enhance operational efficiency and provide a modern platform to meet evolving business needs."

The acquisitions Wesfarmers Health has made in recent years to grow the division include telehealth-based InstantScripts, which it picked up in June 2023 for $135 million, and SILK Laser which it absorbed later that year.

Most recently, in 2025, it acquired franchise operator Pharmacy 4 Less Group, absorbing 96 community chemists it operated under multiple brands that were facing uncertainty when the group entered voluntary administration.

SAP S/4HANA has stronger AI capability than its predecessors and Wesfarmers has proven itself to have an appetite for deploying the technology across its other brands.

Earlier this year in Las Vegas, Bunnings unveiled its AI‑powered agentic assistant Buddy, an application of Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience product.

The agentic bot is capable of answers complex customer questions to help guide them through projects and find the products they need.

Kmart Group, which comprises the Kmart and Target brands and also uses the S/4HANA-based RISE with SAP on AWS, has also been exploring potential to use AI to remove costs in its finance functions.