Senior Advisor, Sycamore Partners
U.S. Retail Pharmacy Segment
Our U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment includes two trusted retail, pharmacy and healthcare brands: Walgreens and Duane Reade. Together, they form one of the largest drugstore chains in the U.S.
Our U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment is anchored by two trusted retail, pharmacy and healthcare brands: Walgreens and Duane Reade. Together, they form one of the largest drugstore chains in the U.S.
Our segment operates 8,701* drugstores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. About 78 percent of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a Walgreens or Duane Reade pharmacy.
We sell prescription and non-prescription drugs, as well as a wide assortment of retail products, including health and wellness, beauty, personal care and consumables and general merchandise. We filled approximately 800 million prescriptions in fiscal 2023, including immunizations.
Our expanded omnichannel capabilities provide customers with convenient access to consumer goods and services, including owned branded general merchandise, such as NICE!, Free & Pure, No7, and Soap & Glory, as well as pharmacy and health and wellness services in communities across America. Integrated with our digital platform, the Walgreens mobile application allows customers to refill prescriptions through scan technology, receive notifications when a refill is due and choose their delivery option, which includes in-store pick up, drive-through or delivery to their home.
The Walgreens loyalty program, myWalgreens, is designed to help customers save money, stay healthy, save time and help their local communities. The program has approximately 113 million active loyalty program members as of August 2023.
We are also focused on the development of our neighborhood health destinations, to provide an integrated primary care and pharmacy model that aims to drive better health outcomes, reduce costs and provide a differentiated patient experience to the communities we serve. Across the U.S., we have more than 85,000 healthcare service providers, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, nurse practitioners and other health-related professionals.
We’ve taken further steps to develop these neighborhood health destinations, working with our strategic partners such as VillageMD to provide an integrated primary care and pharmacy model that aims to drive better health outcomes, reduce costs and provide a differentiated patient experience.
Walgreens also provides specialty pharmacy and mail services and offers certain other health and wellness services throughout the U.S. The Walgreens Find Care platform also includes telehealth service providers, connecting patients and customers with options to access convenient and affordable care from their mobile devices.
*As of Aug. 31, 2023
Walgreens is included in the U.S. Retail Pharmacy and U.S. Healthcare segments of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. Operating more than 8,700 retail locations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Walgreens is proud to serve nearly 9 million customers and patients daily. The company’s approximately 26,000 pharmacists are playing a more critical role in healthcare than ever before, providing a wide range of pharmacy and healthcare services, including those that drive equitable access to care for some of the nation’s most underserved populations. Walgreens offers customers and patients a true omnichannel experience, with fully integrated physical and digital platforms designed to deliver high-quality products and healthcare services. Within the U.S. Healthcare segment, Walgreens portfolio also includes businesses in primary care, multi-specialty, post-acute care, urgent care, specialty pharmacy services, population health and provider enablement.
Since 1960, from its first successful full-service drugstore on Broadway between Duane and Reade Streets in Manhattan, Duane Reade has grown to become the most recognized drugstore chain in metropolitan New York. In 2010, Duane Reade became part of the Walgreens family of companies and today, Duane Reade stores carry everything that our customers will also find in Walgreens stores, including an extensive assortment of pharmacy items as well as vitamins, nutritional products, cosmetics, greeting cards, photo products and processing, and more.
In January 2021, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., made a majority investment in iA, a leading-edge provider of software enabled pharmacy automation solutions.
iA’s pharmacy automation solutions enable the shifting of much of the current medication dispensing labor that takes place in a retail pharmacy to more efficient, centralized settings, therefore freeing up more time for pharmacists to deliver front-line patient care and spend time with customers.
With more than 25 years in the pharmacy fulfillment business, iA has invented and developed a suite of software-driven pharmacy automation solutions. From PharmAssist Symphony software, to modular hardware and sophisticated counting and collation devices, iA is empowering pharmacists and unleashing the full potential of pharmacy.
WBA’s investment is supporting iA’s expansion and further development of pharmacy automation solutions to benefit the entire pharmacy industry. iA’s mission to further modernize and automate the prescription fulfillment process aligns with WBA’s priority to create the pharmacy of the future, reducing operational costs and enabling pharmacists to spend more time providing valuable healthcare services to patients, such as vaccinations, diagnostic testing and medication management.
