Aug. 28, 2025

After more than 80 years of family ownership, Sioux Falls-based Lewis Drug is becoming part of Sanford Health.

The regional chain of drug stores and general merchandise stores has 61 locations across South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota, with about 1,300 employees.

“We’ve had some of our best years of our 82 years recently, but I looked in the mirror one day and said ‘It’s time,'” owner, president and CEO Mark Griffin said.

Sanford Health CEO Bill Gassen and Lewis Drug CEO Mark Griffin

“And it’s time with somebody that’s trusted, that we knew, that we had relations with for the last 25 years as a partner. It’s a continuation of strengths together. That’s the way I look at it.”

Lewis Drug was founded in 1942 by Jesse Lewis and George Frederickson with a first location in downtown Sioux Falls. Griffin’s father, John, bought out Lewis to become a partner in 1946. Mark Griffin has been the sole owner since 1984.

In 1998, Lewis entered a joint venture with Sanford Health to establish Lewis Family Drug locations and co-located stores and clinics.

“That’s helped us do a better job together of meeting the needs of patients and communities, and now with this incredible opportunities to further deepen and fully merge the two organizations, we’re so excited about continuing to grow and expand in the communities we already serve and to start to look at other communities to say how do we meet those needs,” Sanford Health CEO Bill Gassen said.

The two organizations share common roots, he added — decades of history and growth from a home base in Sioux Falls that led to regional expansion.

“We have incredible synergies together through a shared culture and vision,” Gassen said.

The Lewis Drug name will continue, and while the organization itself will become a business unit of Sanford Health, it will remain intact as it is today, Gassen said.

“It’s a thriving organization, and we want to make sure that continues to happen,” he said. “We want to see that furthered and continued to invest in Lewis and think about what it means to continue to grow.”

Griffin has agreed to stay on through a multiyear transition, and the Lewis leadership team will remain. The merchandise mix also is expected to remain consistent with what Lewis currently offers.

“It’s our desire that every single employee at Lewis that’s here today is here tomorrow,” Gassen said. “The intention isn’t to dismantle it. It will continue to be Lewis as it is today but work within the organization.”

‘Ensuring a future’

Lewis Drug is a bit of an anomaly within its industry.

While pharmacy services drive the business, the model also is designed for daily customer traffic, generated by a retail offering that includes everything from household items to food and beverages, toys and pet products. Its garden center increasingly is a key part of the business.

“People can’t compete with us because they don’t know what to do with us,” Griffin said. “So in essence, we’re bulletproof in a lot of areas, and we bring that to the table in a positive light.”

Over the years, “there have been plenty of opportunities” for acquisition “from any chain you can imagine,” he added. “The nice thing about this partnership, this merge, is those strengths play off each other in a positive way for the consumer and the patient. It’s all about health care, and it’s all about the patient and creating a convenient platform.”

Combined, the organization will count more than 700 pharmacists, including almost 200 from Lewis, which Gassen calls “an incredible characteristic.”

“That is a very difficult profession to be able to recruit and retain today,” he said. “When you spend time in a Lewis pharmacy, inside the retail aspects, it’s a different feel. These are team members who take pride in the work they do. There’s a longevity there, much like we enjoy at Sanford Health.”

For Griffin, “we wanted to ensure a future for our people, our Lewis team,” he said. “And ensure that they had opportunities. And I think being with Sanford creates endless opportunities for growth.”

The deal is expected to close this fall, but already the opportunities it presents range from enhancing the existing store offerings to exploring new markets. There could be growth for Lewis in areas such as the Black Hills and Wisconsin, where Sanford recently expanded, Gassen said.

There’s also opportunities to expand within the stores in areas such as audiology, optometry and medical equipment, “using Lewis as even more of a convener for patients than it is today,” he said.

“In addition to that, we’re really excited about how we can help advance the capabilities we’ve developed from a virtual care perspective by connecting to Lewis pharmacies to provide more access in primary care and couple that with the expertise of our pharmacists to provide even more holistic care.”

There also likely are opportunities to highlight retail and health, Griffin said.

“We’re very successful in the garden center business, and we’re seeing a trend of healthy growing and eating,” he said. “I can see a dietitian from Sanford standing in our garden centers talking about healthy growing and healthy eating because, in essence, food is medicine. And that’s just one example.”

From a business standpoint, the combination of a retail store and pharmacy chain with an integrated health system is rare, if not unheard of, both leaders said.

“I think this is a novel and unique and successful approach,” Griffin said.

“I trust Bill. I trust Sanford, and that’s a key element of success in the pharmacy business and the health care business, and Bill and his team possess that in spades,” Griffin said. “I like to think the Lewis Drug brand does as well. Together, we’re better.”

Gassen nodded.

“I believe part of our strength and the partnership of the last quarter century is we have allowed Lewis to be the experts in what they do and allowed Sanford to be the expert health system, and that’s how we look at this going forward too.”

He turned to Griffin.

“Our promise to you is we won’t let you down,” he said.