USA Today – by Kaja Whitehouse
Drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) announced plans to close about 200 U.S. stores as part of its first earnings report since it merged with European drug retailer Alliance Boots last year.
Walgreens, the largest U.S. drugstore chain, said it will close the stores amid plans to boost its previously announced cost-cutting initiative by $500 million.
Walgreens expects to reduce costs by a projected $1.5 billion by the end of fiscal 2017, the company said.
“After a rigorous analysis, the company has identified additional opportunities for cost savings, primarily in its Retail Pharmacy USA division,” the company said Thursday. “Significant areas of focus include plans to close approximately 200 USA stores; reorganize corporate and field operations; drive operating efficiencies; and streamline information technology and other functions.”
Walgreens’ spokesman Philip Caruso said the company has not yet decided which stores it will close, but it is “not focusing on any specific geographic area.” Caruso also said there is “no hard timeline” for when the stores will be closed during the period for cost cutting.
The soon-to-be closed stores make up roughly 2% of the Walgreens’ 8,232 drugstores in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Walgreens also said it opened 71 new drugstores in this region in the first half of fiscal 2015, including 25 relocations.
Store closings aside, Walgreens wowed shareholders with strong earnings. Shares jumped $2.69 a share, or 3% a share, to $90.37 a share.
Walgreens said adjusted second-quarter net earnings increased 33.2% to $1.2 billion. Second-quarter sales, meanwhile, increased 35.5% to $26.6 billion.
The U.S. retail pharmacy division, which includes Walgreens and Duane Reade stores, posted sales in the second quarter of $21 billion, up 7.4% over the year-ago quarter. Total sales in stores open at least a year were up 6.9% over the same quarter a year ago.
In December, Walgreens closed on a deal, valued at close to $16 billion, to purchase the remaining stake of European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots that it didn’t already own. The new company, which includes more than 12,800 stores in 11 countries, was renamed Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., and it took on ticker symbol WBA.
200 stores
each with about 10 employees , estimated
2 to 3 in pharmacy 2 to 3 on registers 1 manager and a few stock people
2,000 jobs cut
Bank of the West will be the next one “in the news”. The Harlan, Iowa branch manager (Debra Brown) is having her “girls” call people with accounts, in order to ask them about information on the drivers license’s. This was done to my Dad, and when I pursued this scam by Bank of the West, I was hit with a court order to appear on April 13th (2015) on charges that I intimidated and threatened her (lies). Deb, when ask by me, said that SHE had began this “service” to ensure that “her” depositors were able to remove money from branches across the country (if they traveled out of state). The dozen other banks that I called, said this was a major no-no, and to get my elderly Dad a new bank and a new license. So there you have it folks, question authority and you get sent to court on trumped-up charges. Thank you Debra Brown. Thank you Bank of the West.
If you have an account at Bank of the West, you have just been warned to remove your money, before they remove it for you. Because it sounds to me as though some branch managers, maybe the entire bank, is getting ready to rip you off.
When I asked Deb Brown who her President was, she refused to tell me, while the other banks were more than gracious to tell me who their President was, even giving the phone number (to his office, not his home, which I respect).
GET OUT OF BANK OF THE WEST…..NOW !!!!!
“Walgreens expects to reduce costs by a projected $1.5 billion by the end of fiscal 2017, the company said.”
Dream on. I expect Wally World will be burnt to the ground before then.
Oops.
Walgreens, not Wally World. 🙄
bzzzzz 😆
Walgreens closing stores? Really? That’s strange because they just built one right down the road from me. Can’t these people make up their minds? Are they going out of business or are they staying in business. The same goes with BestBuy and Sears, among many others. MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!
Seeing the plethora of pharmacies that have been built over the last 10 years in this area, and now that some of the conspicuous excess are being closed, I can only think that there has been in a change in the money laundering procedures. No way did any of these stores have enough business in my community to stay open, much less build new ones.