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MILWAUKEE — Aurora Pharmacy is exiting the supermarket prescription drug business.
The company this month said it has agreed to sell 30 pharmacies, mostly in-store locations, to Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc. and Walgreen Co. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Roundy’s is buying 20 Aurora-operated pharmacies inside its Pick ’n Save and Copps stores in Wisconsin. The grocery retailer said it expects to begin operating the pharmacies in December. Overall, Roundy’s operates 88 pharmacies and 154 supermarkets in Wisconsin and Minnesota under the Pick ’n Save, Copps, Rainbow and Metro Market banners.
Walgreens is acquiring the other 10 pharmacies and plans to shut them and transfer their prescriptions to its nearby stores, according to Aurora, which said those sites are in supermarkets or lie outside its service area.
“These changes will strengthen our integration within Aurora and help ensure that all of our pharmacies are able to meet our patients’ needs with the same high level of services,” stated John Gates, director of operations for Aurora Pharmacy.
The grocery locations were too small to offer Aurora’s full lineup of services, including home medical supplies, and the pharmacies outside Aurora’s eastern Wisconsin market could not be fully integrated with the network of parent Aurora Health Care, Gates explained.
The deals leave Aurora with 81 community pharmacies, including freestanding stores and units in hospitals and clinics.
