Walgreens is centering a recovery on cost savings, which the company said on Wednesday is on track to yield some $1.8 billion by 2022.
But, despite some initiatives including a purchasing tie-up with Kroger and a deal to take FedEx packages in stores, the company is projecting flat earnings growth. Walgreens isn’t getting much help from its healthcare operations, with its U.S. retail pharmacy division seeing retail prescription market share on a 30-day adjusted basis decrease some 55 basis points in the quarter to 20.9%. And while the company touted its core health, wellness and beauty strength, that also under-performed compared to the wider beauty market, according to GlobalData Retail, which noted that Walgreen’s 0.8% sales increase pales next to the the 4.1% growth in sales in the beauty and wellness market during the period.
