National Pharmacies and KeyInvest offspring in Adelaide of friendly funds of Independent Order of Odd Fellows
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows' strong presence in Gawler Place, Adelaide city, with its headquarters and KeyInvest offices (left) and, opposite (at right), its Claridge House from 2929, head office of Friendly Societies' Medical Association (FSMA), trading as National Pharmancies.
National Pharmacies and KeyInvest were two 21st Century South Australian business entities, based in Gawler Place, Adelaide city, that derived from the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Manchester Unity lodges formed in Adelaide from the 1840s.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Manchester Unity Friendly Society in South Australia was formalised by a private act of the colony’s parliament in 1867. It had its office in the Manchester Unity Hall in Franklin Street, Adelaide city.
The society ran a sick and funeral fund, paying benefits to contributors (or their beneficiaries) in sickness or death. An endowment assurance fund, a type of maturing investment, also became popular. The society also set up a superannuation fund to temporarily or permanently help members who’d subscribed to the fund for at least three years.
A major business, Friendly Societies’ Medical Association (FSMA), developed from a non-profit voluntary health insurance fund for lodge members and their families, from 1911. National Pharmacies later became the trading name of the FSMA that remained a mutual organisation where profits were returned to members in benefits and discounts.
In 2021, National Pharmacies had 39 chemist shops in South Australia and 18 in Victoria, one in New South Wales, plus 19 optical stores in South Australia and one in Victoria. National Pharmacies sponsored Adelaide Christmas Pageant for the first time in 2020 in its Adelaide Oval format due to Covid-19 restrictions.
When Medicare introduced to Australia in 1975, the roles of voluntary health insurance funds like the Friendly Societies' Medical Association changed dramatically. Friendly societies had to cut back and concentrate on other services for members, such as investment insurance services, and providing aged care homes.
When the Grand Lodge of Victoria registered "IOOF" as its trading name, the Grand Lodge of South Australia changed its trading name to IOOF(SA). With the increasing focus on investment services, in 2007, IOOF(SA) demutualised and changed its trading name to KeyInvest, providing financial and retirement services.
With more than 100 years in property investment and management, and more than 50 years in building and managing retirement villages, KeyInvest also was running one retirement village in South Australia and one in Horsham, Victoria, in 2021.
In 2023, KeyInvest bought a 50% stake in mortgage fund manager Keystone Capital.
