Walgreen Co. (Deerfield, Ill.) said it is working on changes to its drugstore format and has hired consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton (New York).
Booz Allen consultants have evidently been working at the company's headquarters and a Walgreen spokesman said the nation’s largest drugstore operator would unveil plans to improve store operations during an Oct. 30, 2008, analyst day.
The company also announced it will buy the specialty pharmacy business from drug-maker McKesson Corp. (San Francisco). The acquisition includes McKesson's specialty-pharmacy operation based in Pittsburgh and its IVPCare operation, which offers a variety of reproductive-health related services.
Reuters News Agency reports that Walgreen might also introduce a loyalty card, spruce up its stores and do more to promote its lower-priced generic plan to help boost traffic and sales as rival CVS Caremark Corp. (Woonsocket, R.I.) has ratcheted up the competition with its entry into pharmacy benefits last year and its recent acquisition of Longs Drug Stores Corp. (Walnut Creek, Calif.), for which it outbid Walgreen. Walgreen ceo Jeffrey Rein abruptly left the company earlier this month, two days after it withdrew its unsolicited bid for Longs.
Walgreen unexpectedly posted its first quarterly profit decline in almost 10 years last October and has since tried to address investor concerns more directly, planning its first major analyst meeting for the end of this month. “We will be talking about our store plans and changes we're looking at making,” said the Walgreen spokesman. And the retailer has added a chief marketing officer, Kim Feil, who is among those slated to speak at the upcoming meeting.