Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) announced it plans to close 1,200 stores over the next three years.
CEO Tim Wentworth announced in June that the financially struggling company was reviewing roughly one-quarter of its roughly 8,600 locations and could close a “meaningful percent” during the next few years. At that time, Wentworth said the company did not settle on a specific number of stores to be shuttered.
In this morning’s release of its Fiscal Year 2024 earnings, the company defined its closure target as 1,200, with approximately 500 closures planned for Fiscal Year 2025. However, the company did not state when or where the closures will begin.
“In Fiscal 2025, we are focusing on stabilizing the retail pharmacy by optimizing our footprint, controlling operating costs, improving cash flow, and continuing to address reimbursement models to support dispensing margins and preserve patient access for the future,” said Wentworth. “Fiscal 2025 will be an important rebasing year as we advance our strategy to drive value creation. This turnaround will take time, but we are confident it will yield significant financial and consumer benefits over the long term.”
The company’s sales in Fiscal Year 2024 were $147.7 billion, an increase of 6.2% from the year-ago period, but it also recorded a $14.1 billion operating loss, an increase of 104.5% compared to the year-ago period. Walgreens’ stock is trading near 30-year lows and has plummeted by 65% this year, earning it the unwelcome distinction of being the weakest performing stock on the S&P 500 index.
Photo: Mike Mozart / Flickr Creative Commons
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