Regional Rx Report

NEW YORK Duane Reade as chairman, president and chief executive officer Rick Dreiling, who took the helm in November 2005, forges ahead with the company’s turnaround plan. The initiative, unveiled in March 2006, is all about returning to the fundamentals of the business, and the results are paying off.—Industry observers have been keeping their eye on

“For several quarters now our front-end offerings remain the primary driver of our business. Our goal continues to be to fully optimize the front end’s contribution,” Dreiling told analysts during its third-quarter conference call in November. “To that end, we are purposely leaning our stores more and more toward convenience.”

Duane Reade is testing a new convenience store format, dubbed Duane Reade Express, at 52nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Opened in November, the 3,000-square-foot store consists of a condensed store format carrying a limited assortment of its most frequently purchased items in convenience, general merchandise and health and beauty.

The new concept does not have a pharmacy, but it has a pharmacy kiosk enabling shoppers to request prescriptions they can pick up at a nearby Duane Reade or have delivered.

In addition, Duane Reade was scheduled to open three additional DR Walk-in Medical Care clinics by the end of 2007. Through its partnership with Consumer Health Services, Duane Reade had, as of press time, four such physicianstaffed clinics in operation.

To help New Yorkers with diabetes manage their health, Duane Reade has opened the doors to its second Diabetes Resource Center in Brooklyn. The new center also addresses obesity and hypertension.

The first Diabetes Resource Center opened in Manhattan in the first half of 2006.

For beauty shoppers, Duane Reade has been quietly expanding and enhancing its Skin Wellness Centers and, as of early this year, planned to have about 35 centers in operation.

Introduced in 2004, the prestige brand-bearing boutiques are Eurostyle centers staffed by beauty advisers. The centers sell such higher-end skin care brands as Vichy Laboratories from L’Oréal, Avene from Pierre Fabre, Lierac Paris brand and La Roche-Posay.