Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth informed CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the corporate is utilizing its shops and model to bolster its rising well being care enterprise.
Walgreens has made vital investments over the previous few years to increase past its drugstore chain into a big well being care firm. Wentworth acknowledged that the corporate was closing its shops to make sure it had the “proper optimum footprint,” however challenged the concept that Walgreens should fully rework its shops to fulfill its well being care targets.
“Should you have a look at the shops and what is going on on… eight million vaccines this yr at the back of the shop already, that is a well being care enterprise, proper?” He stated. “It isn’t simply placing tablets in bottles, it means individuals touching individuals — 85,000 of our workers contact individuals each day, 10 million individuals strolling into our retailer.”
Wentworth emphasised the bodily and private function Walgreens performs in communities, calling prospects’ belief within the model a “leverageable asset” the corporate can use because it builds its well being companies enterprise.
“When a Walgreens pharmacy calls you and says, ‘Hey, your well being plan will cowl a dose for you, would you want to return into the shop and we may give it to you?’” Wentworth stated, “You might be 4 to 5 instances extra probably to reply to that than if somebody from insurance coverage firm and inform you an identical factor.” “That is invaluable to your Medicare Benefit plan, for instance. It is a easy instance of how we will leverage platform and belief to meaningfully assist others within the ecosystem obtain their targets.”
Wentworth got here out of retirement to take the reins at Walgreens in October 2023. He beforehand served as CEO of the nation’s largest pharmacy advantages administration firm, Categorical Scripts, which was acquired by Cigna in 2018.
Walgreens has had a tricky few years, battling quite a few hurdles together with decrease demand for Covid merchandise, decrease pharmacy reimbursement charges, competitors from on-line retailers in addition to labor unrest from pharmacy workers. The corporate managed to beat Wall Avenue’s earnings expectations final week, nevertheless it additionally lower its dividend by practically half, sending its shares decrease.