Walgreens shares surge on plans to boost focus on health services
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Walgreens Boots AllianceRoz Brewer was announced Thursday as the CEO for’s new drugstore chain. He said the company will put more emphasis on health and make it a “new growth driver.”
She said that nearly 9,000 of the company’s stores throughout the U.S. could be used as places for customers to go to the doctor, have medical tests done, or get advice from a pharmacist or nurse. The new Walgreens health division will provide these services.
In an interview on CNBC, she stated that “This new Walgreens Health” will be a big difference. Bertha CoombsIt is. It will focus on the lives we manage and the lives we touch, as well as the lives we are able to wrap clinicians and physicians around in our buildings.
Walgreens plan was welcomed by investors. Following a virtual investor conference, Walgreens’ shares rose by nearly 9 percent on Thursday. Shares are up almost 19% so far in the year.
Walgreens has plans for hundreds of primary care clinics. They also plan to increase the number of products in front of customers and take over several companies that provide health-care services.
The expansion of health services
Recently, it was decided that invest an additional $5.2 billion in VillageMDThe Walgreens primary care business will operate clinics in Walgreens locations and plans to become public in 2022. The company also bought a major stake in CareCentrix home-health-care and Shields Health Solutions specialty pharmacy companies.
Walgreens is also increasing its health-care services and will increase its goal of cost saving to $3.3Billion by 2024. After slashing $2 billion of costs, the Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe stated that Walgreens decided to increase this goal.
Brewer stepped into the top leadership role of Walgreens in mid-MarchAfter serving as the chief operating officer, StarbucksThe CEO WalmartSam’s Club – Owned
According to her, health care is personal for her. She recalled her mom’s final months, and how her family managed to juggle medical bills, multiple doctors, and dialysis appointments. She described the experience as “incredibly complicated, unwieldy, and burdensome.”
It was a distraction for her family, she said. They should be focusing on what is important: her time spent with her mom.
For so many Americans, she said that is the same experience — and one that Walgreens aims to solve by weaving together primary care with pharmacies and freeing up more of employees’ time to help patients.
New look for stores
Walgreens leadership believes that over the next few decades, consumers will notice the difference in Walgreens’ approximately 9,000 U.S. store locations.
Walgreens announced that 85 clinics will be open in the stores before the end of this year. These clinics will go under Village Medical at Walgreens. By 2025, it plans to establish at least 600 doctors offices in over 30 U.S. states and 1,027 by 2027. They will locate more than half in areas that are underserved by medicine.
It will also be available online and in some shops, as well as Walgreens Health Corner. It will have a staff of pharmacists and medical personnel who will consult patients to help manage chronic conditions.
John Standley, Walgreens president, stated that customers will now be able get additional medical tests such as HIV, strep and pneumonia. The company’s pilots include a HIV-testing pilot in two states. It expects its annual revenue to reach $26 million by 2024.
Walgreens will open centralized centers to fill prescriptions, ship them to people’s homes and take away pharmacists’ time for customer service, vaccinations, and other tests. Already, there are two locations in Dallas and Phoenix. The company plans to add nine additional centers by the end fiscal year 2022. That will make the total number of pharmacies available to close to 3,900.
Brewer stated that the merchandise of the company will be displayed in the store’s front. She said that Walgreens already has seen customers gravitate towards beauty and supplements with a wellness focus. It will also add private-label products, she said.
Walgreens was her answer. will take a hard look at tobacco sales. It continued selling cigarettes even though CVS Health discontinued the product in 2014.
Walgreens follows a similar route to rivals with this strategy CVS Health — but with one major caveat. CVS can also be used as an insurance company. It acquired Aetna in 2018In a merger worth $69 billion
CVS now offers MinuteClinics urgent care services in addition to the usual health-care services offered by its drugstores. CVS is making hundreds of its drugstores into HealthHubs. Here, customers have the opportunity to meet with a counselor and take part in yoga or receive help managing diabetes.
Kehoe claimed that Walgreens can use its lack of an insurer to their advantage. The company’s sole focus is on health and not payers, he said. He added that Walgreens will offer full-fledged primary-care services, and not MinuteClinic.
Walgreens and Walgreens have reached deals so far Clover HealthBlue Shield of California and, a Medicare Insurance start-up to offer health-care services to their over 2 million members.
Walgreens is also looking for opportunities to grow in other markets. Boots has a reputation for selling premium beauty and makeup brands in the United Kingdom. Kehoe stated that store traffic increased after the removal of pandemic restrictions in Japan. This has made it easier for people to shop and make friends.
Walgreen has some of its beauty brands No. 7 and Soap & Glory are now carried by major U.S. retailers, including Target, Ulta BeautyAnd WalmartYou can find it here. Kehoe indicated that the brands represent a $750m business, and they are projected to reach $1 billion.
We still have a high demand for vaccines
The future growth of Covid-19 vaccines is expected to be strong. The fiscal year ended August 31 saw Walgreens administer 34.6 Million vaccines. It administered 13.5 million in the fourth quarter — which accounted for 21% of the total vaccines given.
Walgreens projects that 25 million Covid vaccines will be distributed by Walgreens during the next fiscal year. This is due to the fact that some children get booster shots, and others who are younger than expected can qualify.
However, the retailer will also face a variety of problems that the company will need to address. These challenges include increased shoplifting, shortages of workers, and supply chain snarls due to pandemics.
For instance, Walgreens is closing five more locations in San FranciscoBecause of organised retail theft. Recently, it was announced plans to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hourBy Nov. 22, to catch up with retailers that have increased wages or offered perks
Kehoe explained that Walgreens is expanding its business in health-care at a moment when talent is scarce. Walgreens has been able to find more qualified medical staff because they are “believing and learning” about Walgreens.
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