Walgreens reports surge in May sales

DEERFIELD, Ill. Walgreens reported a 6.1% increase in sales for the month of May, from $5.06 billion for the same month in 2008.

Meanwhile, sales in comparable stores (those open at least a year) increased 1%. Comparable store front-end sales increased 0.2%, versus last year’s increase of 6%. May pharmacy sales increased 6.3%, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 1.5%. Comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 4.5 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months.

Fiscal 2009 year-to-date sales for the nine months were $47.6 billion, up 7.2% from $44.4 billion. Comparable store sales for the fiscal year to date increased 1.9%.

Walgreens opened 43 stores during May, including four relocations, acquired 38 stores and closed three.

At May 31, Walgreens operated 7,361 locations in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. That includes 6,857 drugstores, 605 more than a year ago, including 73 stores acquired over the last 12 months. The company also operates worksite health centers, home care facilities and specialty, institutional and mail service pharmacies. Its Take Care Health Systems subsidiary manages 716 in-store convenient care clinics and worksite health and wellness centers. Franchisees of Option Care, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens, are not included in Walgreens location or store count.