DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreen Co. saw its comparable-store sales stay on the upside in June.
Walgreens said Wednesday that comp-store sales rose 2.3% in June, reflecting negative impacts of 1.5 percentage points from calendar day shifts (one extra Sunday and one fewer Friday) and 1.8 percentage points from introductions of lower-priced generic drugs.
The June result was slightly less than the 2.8% increase for May but continued an improving same-store sales trend in 2013 for Walgreens, which has reported gains each month save for a dip in February.
For June, same-store sales in the front end edged up 0.8%. Customer traffic in comparable stores fell 2.9%, and basket size grew 3.7%.
Comparable pharmacy sales were up 3.3% in June and rose by a calendar day-shift adjusted 5.6%, according to Walgreens. The drug chain said calendar day shifts negatively impacted comparable pharmacy sales by 2.3 percentage points, while new generic drugs negative impacted calendar day-shift adjusted comparable pharmacy sales by 2.8 percentage points.
Prescription count at comparable stores climbed 5% in June and grew 7.3% on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis, Walgreens reported. Calendar shifts negatively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 2.3 percentage points for the month.
Walgreens added that the percentage of Express Scripts prescriptions returning to its pharmacies continued to increase in June.
Overall June sales rose 2.5% to $5.79 billion from $5.64 billion a year earlier, Walgreens said. Sales increased by 2.2% in the front end and by 2.9% in the pharmacy. For the month, pharmacy sales accounted for 64.3% of total revenue.
Enrollments in the Balance Rewards loyalty program totaled over 75 million through June, according to Walgreens.
For the 2013 calendar year to date, Walgreens’ sales were up 2.4% to $35.88 billion. Fiscal 2013 year-to-date sales, covering the first 10 months of the period, dipped 0.5% to $60.2 billion from a year earlier.
Walgreens said it opened 10 stores during June, including four relocations, and closed four stores. As of June 30, the chain had 8,098 drug stores, 191 more than a year ago, including 66 net stores acquired over the last 12 months.
