Deerfield-based Walgreen Co. said it ended its fiscal year Aug. 31 with an 8.6 percent gain in during the month to $5.66 billion. That brought the 12-month total to $67.4 billion, a 6.5 percent gain over fiscal 2009.
The company also said it has engineered a swap with elderly-care specialist Omnicare Inc. in which Omnicare will buy Walgreens’ long-term care pharmacy unit while Walgreens will acquire Omnicare’s home-infusion business.
Walgreens said its comparable store sales, those open more than a year, increased 1.6 percent for the year and about that for the month of August. But the drug-store giant’s April acquisition of the Duane Reade chain is helping boost overall results. The addition of the New York-centered chain contributed 3 percent to Walgreens’ August increase.
Pharmacy sales, which made up two-thirds of the total during August, jumped 8.6 percent. Same-store pharmacy sales, adjusted for calendar day shifts, rose just 1.4 percent. Walgreens said generic drug introductions shaved 2.6 percentage points from that number. The company didn’t break out full-year pharmacy sales.
Walgreens Chief Executive Greg Wasson said the Omnicare deal will help his chain spend more resources on what’s growing.
“By divesting our long-term care pharmacy business, we are able to have a stronger focus on our overall growth strategy while taking advantage of a specific opportunity to grow our infusion services,” Wasson said in a statement. “Acquiring Omnicare’s infusion business allows us to expand into currently underserved markets, while also strengthening our position in existing markets.”
Wasson said Walgreens is already the nation’s largest provider of home-infusion services and will be adding Omnicare’s six sites in Maryland, Nevada, Virginia, Pennsylvania and California.
Walgreens said it made sense to exit the long-term care pharmacy business after determining that, by itself, the unit didn’t have enough scale to grow into a sector leader without significant additional investment.
Omnicare, based in Covington, KY., will buy Walgreens long-term care pharmacy locations in Colorado, Texas, Florida, Georgia and Maryland.
As of Aug. 31, Walgreens said it had 8,053 drug stores in operation, 566 more than a year ago. It opened 27 stores in August and closed five. It has acquired 281 stores over the past year, including the Duane Reade chain.
