Walgreens To Shutter 200 U.S. Stores In Campaign To Cut Costs

DEERFIELD, IL — Walgreens plans to close around 200 stores around the country, the company announced Tuesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The move is part of a multi-year effort by to cut costs by $1.5 billion annually.

A company spokesperson said the Deerfield-based pharmacy chain would not release a list of locations set to be shuttered. The closures are due to begin in the fall, according to Molly Sheehan, Walgreens' senior manager of corporate media relations. In a statement, she said the company expected to be able to retain the majority of employees of the shuttered stores at other locations.

"We are undertaking a transformational cost management program to accelerate the ongoing transformation of our business, enable investments in key areas and to become a more efficient enterprise," Sheehan said.

"Given that these closures will represent less than 3 percent of our stores overall, and given that we have multiple locations in many markets, we anticipate minimal disruption to customers and patients," she said, declining Wednesday to specify whether a list of stores slated for closing had yet been determined.

During an earnings call in May, the company announced it planned to close about 200 stores in the United Kingdom and review its real estate holdings in the United States. Its decision to close 200 U.S. stores followed that review, according to the SEC filing, which estimated its "Transformational Cost Management Program" would result in a cost of between $1.9 billion and $2.4 billion in pre-tax adjustments to its financial results.

In June, Walgreens Boots Alliance reported its quarterly net income was down by nearly a quarter. In the first nine months of the fiscal year, the company's net earnings fell by nearly 6 percent compared with a year earlier, with operating income down almost 16 percent. Walgreens, which operates more than 18,000 stores globally, has previously announced plans to close 750 of the 1,932 Rite Aid stores it purchased for $4 billion. Its stock has fallen about 24 percent since the start of its fiscal year last September.

UPDATE: Walgreens Lays Off Undisclosed Number Of Deerfield Employees