Walgreens December same-store sales up 9.2%

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Tuesday announced that December sales increased 10.2% to $7.9 billion. Sales in comparable stores increased by 9.2% in December. 

 

December pharmacy sales increased by 15.7%, while comparable store pharmacy sales increased 14.2% and increased by a calendar day-shift adjusted 12.1%. This year’s December had one additional Wednesday and one fewer Sunday compared with December 2013. Calendar day shifts positively impacted pharmacy sales in comparable stores by 2.1 percentage points. Calendar day-shift adjusted comparable store pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 1.5 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months, and were positively impacted by 0.9 percentage point due to higher incidence of flu compared with the same month a year ago. Pharmacy sales accounted for 61.3% of total sales for the month.

 

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased by 7.8% in December and increased 5.7% on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis. Calendar shifts positively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 2.1 percentage points. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores also were positively impacted by 1.2 percentage points due to higher incidence of flu compared with the same month a year ago.

            

Flu shots administered at pharmacies and clinics season to date were nearly 7.6 million versus more than 6.7 million last year.

 

Total front-end sales increased 3.5% compared with the same month in fiscal 2014, while comparable store front-end sales increased 2.6%. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 0.3% while basket size increased 2.3%.

 

Calendar 2014 sales were $78.4 billion, an increase of 6.4%. Fiscal 2015 year-to-date sales for the first four months were $27.5 billion, up 7.7%.

 

Walgreens opened four stores during December and closed four.