Walgreens total sales, comps drop in June

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Thursday posted June sales of about $5.6 billion, a decrease of 6.8% as compared with the same month in fiscal year 2011.

The negative impact on comparable-store prescriptions filled due to no longer being part of the Express Scripts pharmacy network was 10.7 percentage points. Prescriptions processed by Express Scripts comprised 12.6% of Walgreens prescriptions in June 2011. June pharmacy sales decreased 10.7%, while comparable-store pharmacy sales slid 15%. Calendar day shifts negatively impacted pharmacy sales in comparable stores by 2.3 percentage points. Comparable-store pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 5.8 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months, by 0.7 percentage points due to the product mix of cough, cold and flu drugs.

Pharmacy sales accounted for 62.9% of total sales for the month.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores tumbled 11.9% in June. Calendar day shifts during the month, which had one additional Friday and Saturday, and one fewer Wednesday and Thursday compared with June 2011, negatively impacted prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 2.3 percentage points. Additionally, lower incidence of flu also drove down comparable-prescription sales by 0.3 percentage points.

Walgreens did see a small positive gain in total front-end sales, which increased 0.5%, compared with the same month in 2011; however, comparable-store front-end sales decreased 1%. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 2.3% while basket size increased 1.3%.

Sales in comparable stores decreased by 10%.

Calendar year-to-date sales were $35.04 billion, a decrease of 3% from nearly $36.11 billion in 2011.