Walgreens January Sales Increase 5.3 Percent

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 05 Feb 2009 - 6:00 PDT

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Walgreens (NYSE:WAG)(NASDAQ:WAG) had January sales of $5,220,500,000, an increase of 5.3 percent from $4,957,145,000 for the same month in 2008. Sales in comparable stores (those open at least a year) rose 0.4 percent, while comparable store front-end sales decreased 0.9 percent.

January pharmacy sales increased 5.0 percent, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 1.0 percent. Comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 2.2 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months. Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores decreased 2.0 percent in January. Pharmacy sales accounted for 66.9 percent of total sales for the month.

Calendar day shifts had a negative impact on the month, as pharmacy patients fill more prescriptions during the week than on weekends. This year, January had one fewer weekday compared to January 2008. Calendar shifts negatively impacted total comparable store sales by 1.2 percentage points, comparable pharmacy sales by 1.8 percentage points and prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 1.9 percentage points.

Total prescriptions filled at comparable stores were negatively impacted by 1.6 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions versus 30-day. Comparable prescriptions filled also were hurt by 0.3 percentage points due to the switch of Zyrtec from prescription to over-the-counter status.

January front-end sales were helped in part by sales of key beauty categories, basic necessities and consumables. Also, Zyrtec's switch to over-the-counter status benefited front-end sales by 0.2 percentage points.

Fiscal 2009 year-to-date sales for the first five months were $26,280,761,000, up 7.3 percent from $24,497,858,000. Comparable store sales for the fiscal year to date increased 2.2 percent.

Walgreens opened 23 stores during January, including four relocations, acquired four stores and closed one.

At Jan. 31, Walgreens operated 7,154 locations in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 6,658 drugstores, 586 more than a year ago. The company also operates worksite health centers, home care facilities and specialty, institutional and mail service pharmacies. Its Take Care Health Systems subsidiary manages 693 in-store convenient care clinics and worksite health and wellness centers. Franchisees of Option Care, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens, are not included in Walgreens location or store count.

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