Walgreens reports strong March sales

DEERFIELD, Ill. One of the nation's largest drug store chains reported Monday a 6.4% increase for its monthly sales.

Walgreens said its March sales increased to $5.82 billion from $5.47 billion in the year-ago period. Additionally, sales in comparable stores increased 2.3%.

For the month, pharmacy sales increased 5.6%, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 2.4%. The retail pharmacy chain said that pharmacy sales accounted for 66.4% of total sales for the month.

Meanwhile, total front-end sales increased 6.6% in March, as comparable store front-end sales increased 2.2%. Comparable store front-end sales were helped by approximately 2.1 percentage points due to this year’s earlier Easter, Walgreens said.

Calendar year-to-date sales for Walgreens totaled $16.47 billion, an increase of 4% from $15.83 billion in 2009, while fiscal 2010 year-to-date sales for the first seven months were $39.17 billion, up 6.2% from $36.89 billion.

Walgreens opened 52 stores during March, including eight relocations, acquired four and closed three. At March 31, Walgreens operated 7,720 locations in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.