About Company
Walgreens, known with the business name Walgreens Company, is a US-based firm that runs as the 2nd biggest pharmacy shop chain in the country, just next to CVS Health.
Walgreen offers specialized services related to wellness and health products, filling prescriptions, imaging services, and health data.
Till 31st August 2019, Walgreens ran 9,277 outlets in the US. In 1901, the company was established in Chicago, Illinois. The head office of the organization is situated in the Chicago outskirts of Deerfield, IL.
In 2014, Walgreens consented to take over the leftover 55% of Alliance Boots, a company located in Switzerland that Walgreens didn’t previously possess to create a worldwide business enterprise.
According to the new terms and conditions of the acquisition, the unification of the two firms took place on 31st December 2014 to create a fresh parent company and the name assigned was Walgreens Boots Alliance, Incorporated. As a consequence of this merger, Walgreens turned into a subsidiary company of the new firm that keeps its Deerfield head office in Illinois. The stocks of Walgreens Boots Alliance are publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange with the ticker symbol WBA. Till 2020, the company recruited 450,000 workers around the world.
Who is the founder of Walgreens?
The founder of Walgreens is Charles Rudolph Walgreen, a US-based business tycoon.
Growth in the 21st Century
2006:
The company took over the Happy Harry’s chain in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland.
October 2007:
The company launched its 6,000th outlet, in New Orleans, LA.
January 2008:
The company acquired 20 outlets from Farmacias El Amal, Puerto Rico.
July 2009:
The chain runs in all fifty states of the US, the District of Columbia, as well as Puerto Rico.
17 February 2010:
The company came up with policies to take over Duane Reade, a New York City-based chain at a valuation of US $1.075 billion, comprising debt. Walgreens keeps on applying the name of Duane Reade to particular outlets in the NY City metro region.
24 March 2011:
Walgreens took over Drugstore.com at a valuation of US $409 million. Successively, Drugstore.com purchased Beauty.com. Internet Retailer Magazine ranked Beauty.com in its list of the top hundred online retail websites in 2013.
30 April 2011:
Walgreens ran 8,169 outlets. The company had grown into Puerto Rico and Guam.
18 August 2011:
Walgreens launched its “Nice!” shop brand of household and food items. Completely established by 2012, the Nice! trademark substituted a range of prevailing Walgreens outlets like Cafe W, Deerfield Farms, and so on.
19 June 2012:
The company disbursed the US $6.7 billion for a forty-five percent stake in Alliance Boots.
5 July 2012:
The company got into a deal to take over the Mid-South pharmacy chain running under the streamers Super D Drug, USA Drug, Med-X, May’s Drug, as well as Drug Warehouse. The contract was anticipated to be settled by 1st September 2012.
10 September 2013:
The company proclaimed that it had purchased Kerr Drug.
14 September 2013:
The company launches its first shop in the US Virgin Islands.
6 August 2014:
The company implemented its choice to acquire the leftover 55% stake of Alliance Boots. The newly merged firm has been named the Walgreens Boots Alliance. The head office of the firm is based in Chicago, IL.
9 August 2014:
Walgreens Boots Alliance bought a stake in the brand Almus Generic for an undisclosed value. Almus was founded in the United Kingdom with Walgreens fetching the generic drug into the United States.
19th September 2017
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) sanctioned a 4th contract for acquiring Rite Aid with 1,932 outlets at an overall valuation of US $4.38 billion.
28 July 2016
The company declared that it would cease the operations of Beauty.com and Drugstore.com to concentrate on its indigenous Walgreens.com site.
October 2017
Walgreens declared that it would be shutting down around six hundred outlets in the next 24 months. The outlets would be primarily Rite Aid sites. The windups would commence in the 2018 spring.
January 2018
The company declared that it anticipates buying one thousand nine hundred and thirty-two Rite Aid outlets by 2018 spring.
August 2019
The company stated that it would be shutting down around two hundred outlets.
Walgreens Brands
The comprehensive list of Walgreens Boots Alliance brands is given below:
Corporate Activities
The corporate head office of the company is situated in Deerfield, IL. Till 2009, Walgreens recruited around 5,200 workers at the head office.
There is a technology office of the company situated in Chicago that has been operational since 2010.
In 1987, the company recruited around 1,100 workers at its head office that was during that period in a standalone place on the western flank of Deerfield. Till 2000, the head office of the company was still there in a standalone place in West Deerfield Township.
During the 2014 summer, business resettlement to Switzerland was taken into account as an element of an amalgamation with Alliance Boots, a pharmacy chain based in Europe. This move attracted dispute since several customers believed that it was an endeavor of tax evasion. On 5th August 2014, the company declared that shifting of the head office would not take place.
In 2018 spring, the company declared that it would transfer around 1,800 personnel, several among them associated with its information technology and digital processes, to the lately refurbished Old Chicago Main Post Office.
Associated ventures
Previously, Walgreens was the proprietor of Sanborns that was one of the biggest Mexican drug store and retail store chains. In 1946, the company acquired Sanborns. The owner of the Mexican company was Frank Sanborn and in 1982, it was divested to Grupo Carso. Walgreens Farmacias Benavides was purchased by Walgreens in 2014, and it runs as the Mexican division of the firm.
Walgreens possessed and ran a casual dining restaurant/hotcake eatery chain known as Wag’s, an effort to vie with the lunch kiosks of Woolworth. During the 80s, the Wag’s diners were quite comparable to Golden, IHOP, and Bear Denny’s, in the idea. At its pinnacle, the chain had more than 100 outlets. In 1988, the majority of these outlets were sold by Walgreens to Marriott Corporation, and the chain shut its operations by 1991.
Walgreens Management
Stefano Pessina
Stefano Pessina serves as the Executive Chairman of Walgreens Boots Alliance and is the biggest individual stockholder (16%) of the company. He was the Executive Chairman of Alliance Boots from 2007 July to 2014 December. Pessina also worked as Alliance Boots Executive Deputy Chairman. He was Executive Vice Chairman of the board of directors of Walgreens Boots Alliance from 2015 January to 2021 March. He has served as the CEO of the same from 2015 July to 2021 March, having functioned as the stand-in CEO from 2015 January to 2015 July.
Before the amalgamation of the Boots Group and Alliance UniChem, Stefano served as the Alliance UniChem Executive Deputy Chairman, earlier having acted as its CEO for a 3-year stint till December 2004 end.
In 1997, he was nominated to the BoD of Alliance UniChem at the time of its merger with Alliance Sante, the Italian-Franco across-the-board pharma chain that was set up by him in 1977 in Italy.
From 2000-2017, Mr. Stefano was a part of the BoD of Galenica AG, a Switzerland-based healthcare conglomerate. The stocks of Galenica AG are bought and sold publicly. Pessina was a part of the BoD of various privately operated firms.
Rosalind Brewer
Rosalind Brewer is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Incorporated.
In 2021 March, Ms. Brewer became a part of Walgreens Boots Alliance as CEO. Rosalind serves as a Director of the BoD of Walgreens Boots Alliance as well. Of late, she worked as the Group President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Starbucks from 2017 October to 2021 January.
Before joining Starbucks, Rosalind worked as Chief Executive Officer and President of Sam’s Club, which was an affiliation-oriented retail warehouse association and segment of Walmart, Incorporated, from 2012 February to 2017 February. Rosalind earlier occupied various administrative and managerial berths with Walmart, starting in 2006.
From 2004 to 2006, before becoming a part of Walmart, Rosalind was employed as Global Nonwovens Division President for Kimberly-Clark Corporation that is a worldwide health and hygiene goods manufacturer, and worked in different executive roles for Kimberly-Clark starting in 1984.
Presently, Rosalind Brewer is serving as the Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees for Spelman College. It is worth mentioning that Brewer completed her under graduation from this college. She is a Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture Board Member as well. Rosalind earlier formed a part of the BoD for Amazon, Starbucks, Molson Coors Brewing Company, and Lockheed Martin Corporation. Presently, Brewer enjoys 27th rank on Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business.
John T. Standley
John Standley serves as the Executive Vice President and President of Walgreens. As the President of the organization, John supervises all the business activities of Walgreens and is entrusted with the responsibility of growth, expansion, and handling of the commercial operations as the firm keeps on progressing on its administration in the fast transforming healthcare industry. John heads the constant speedup and execution of the four all-embracing urgencies of the company and they are –
- Rethinking the retail merchandize of the firm
- Forming locality health care hubs
- Handling funds and expenses
- Digitalization of Walgreens’ trade
Earlier, John worked as chief executive officer, president, as well as chairman of Rite Aid Corporation as a component of an extensive stint with the firm in different managerial positions. Standley had several achievements including Rite Aid’s switchover from a conventional pharmacy chain to a wellness and healthcare firm via different packages and enterprises, comprising the introduction and growth of Walgreens loyalty program and wellness pattern outlets over and above its acquisitions of a population controlling firm, comprehensively skilled PBM (Pharmacy Benefit Manager), computerized healthcare facilities, and retail health centers.
Before joining Rite Aid, John worked as the board member and chief executive officer of Pathmark Stores, Incorporated, and occupied financial manager berths at various other merchandising and foodstuff firms. John is an erstwhile NACDS (National Association of Chain Drug Stores) chairman and earlier functioned on the BoDs of Supervalu, Incorporated. and CarMax, Incorporated.
John has a B.Sc degree from Pepperdine University.
Walgreens is incorporated in the Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., Retail Pharmacy USA Division, and located in Deerfield, IL.
The Viewpoint of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
The company is confidently dedicated to shaping an improved world via healthcare and wellbeing. They are turning this into a reality with the help of their fundamental ethics, imagination of the organization, and brand objectives. Their ambition is to achieve first place in the domain of pharmaceuticals, beauty, and healthcare, taking care of communities throughout the world. Their goal is to steadfastly aid people around the world to lead a happier and improved lifestyle.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Stock Performance
On August 27, 2021, WBA closed trading with NASDAQ at $48.48 at 4:00 pm EST (Eastern Standard Time).
Walgreens Boots Alliance Financials
Disclaimer:
This article is particularly for academic and research purposes and you should not consider it to be a piece of investment advice. It is always judicious to talk to your investment consultant while thinking about any investment.
