DEERFIELD, Ill. — Same-store sales for Walgreen Co. rebounded in June after coming in virtually flat the previous month.
The drug store chain said Tuesday that sales in comparable stores — which don’t include the acquired Duane Reade stores — increased 2% in June, up from decreases of 0.2% in May and April and back in line with the 2.3% gain recorded in March.
Walgreens’ same-store increase for June reflected a 2.2% gain in the front end and a 1.8% uptick in the pharmacy. The company said calendar day shifts positively impacted comparable pharmacy sales by 0.2 percentage point. Meanwhile, comparable pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 1.9 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months and by 0.3 percentage point due to lower incidence of flu.
Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 3.4 percent in June, including 1.3 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions, according to Walgreens. Calendar day shifts positively impacted prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 0.2 percentage point, while the lower incidence of flu negatively impacted comparable prescriptions filled by 0.7 percentage point.
Total sales in June came in at $5.67 billion, up 8.4% from $5.23 billion a year earlier. Walgreens noted that Duane Reade stores contributed three percentage points to the total sales increase for the month.
June pharmacy sales rose 6.8%, while front-end sales jumped 10.9%, including 5.1 percentage points from Duane Reade. Walgreens pointed out that customer traffic in comparable stores climbed 2%, and basket size increased 0.2%.
For the calendar year to date, revenue totaled $33.52 billion, an increase of 5.4% versus the year-ago period. Fiscal 2010 sales for the first 10 months were $56.22 billion, up 6.4%.
Walgreens opened 24 stores during June, including five relocations, one acquisition and one closure.
As of June 30, Walgreens operated 7,541 drugstores, 639 more than a year ago, including 283 stores acquired over the last 12 months.
