As a part of a transfer to “additional” its give attention to the corporate’s core retail pharmacy enterprise, Walgreens is shedding 256 staff who crammed assist middle roles, a spokesperson confirmed to Retail Dive on Wednesday. Affected staff will obtain severance pay and outplacement assist, the corporate mentioned.
“Whereas choices like these are all the time troublesome, we imagine this motion is important to place us to quickly reply to the altering exterior atmosphere so we will greatest serve the tens of millions of sufferers and clients who depend upon us every single day for his or her healthcare wants,” a Walgreens spokesperson mentioned in an electronic mail. “We’re grateful for the various contributions by group members who will probably be leaving, and we’re dedicated to supporting them as a lot as doable throughout this transition.”
This week’s announcement is the pharmacy retailer’s newest spherical of job cuts over the past 12 months. In February, the corporate laid off 145 folks, most of whom had been a part of the company workforce. And final November, Walgreens minimize 267 folks, or about 5% of its company workforce on the time.
The cuts additionally observe an Oct. 15 announcement that Walgreens plans to shut about 1,200 shops in the course of the subsequent three years. About 500 shops are slated to shut in the course of the retailer’s present fiscal 12 months, which simply started. In an October earnings name, CEO Tim Wentworth mentioned about 6,000 of the corporate’s roughly 8,000 shops are worthwhile.
“This stable base helps our conviction in a retail pharmacy led mannequin that’s related to our shoppers, and we intend to put money into these shops over the following a number of years,” Wentworth mentioned, including that funding for the funding will come partially from closing the underperforming places.
For the corporate’s fiscal 12 months ended Aug. 31, Walgreens reported general gross sales of $148 billion and a internet lack of $8.7 billion. For the corporate’s U.S. retail pharmacy phase, gross sales had been $116 billion for the 12 months. For the prior 12 months, the corporate reported gross sales of $139 billion and a internet lack of $3.1 billion.
In response to a latest Numerator survey of 500 individuals who made a purchase order at Walgreens prior to now six months, if Walgreens is not an possibility, 51% of survey respondents mentioned they’re almost certainly to purchase from different drug shops like CVS or Ceremony Help; 43% mentioned they’ll go to large field retailers like Walmart or Goal; 28% mentioned they’ll shift to grocery shops like Kroger or Publix. Membership shops like Costco or Sam’s Membership would seize 18% of respondents; the identical share mentioned they’ll shift their buying to greenback or low cost shops.
