Walgreens has announced that it will close 150 stores in the U.S. this year — this comes on the heels of posting a disappointing Q3.
During its third quarter financial call earlier this week, Walgreens Boots Alliance softened its fiscal year projections after the demand for COVID-19 immunizations and tests, as well as respiratory seasonal sales, was not as high as expected.
The Northbrook, Ill.-based company’s adjusted operating income is at $3.2 billion — a drop of over 26% on a constant currency basis.
Additionally, the company’s healthcare segment, which includes primary-care provider VillageMD and urgent care provider Summit Health, had a $113 million loss in the third quarter mainly due to the cost of expansion of VillageMD (93 more clinics were added year-over-year) and a decline in visits at Summit Health. A lighter-than-normal respiratory season kept Summit Health from seeing growth.
The company is now in a conservative mode, and announced during the financial call that it plans to raise savings from $3.5 billion to $4.1 billion. That will require making some budgetary cuts.
Earlier in the year, Walgreens announced it was cutting corporate staff by about 10%, or 504 roles. All the cuts were to take place at the Deerfield and Chicago offices.
Compounding the financial strain is the growing number of opioid settlements. In June both CVS and Walgreens agreed to pay a multistate settlement of $17.3 billion over the next 15 years.
