🠈  Walgreens  🠊

Walgreen Boots Alliance

Walgreens is the world's largest drug store chain. The store began in 1901 with a single shop owned by Charles Rudolph Walgreen (1873 ??? 1939) in Chicago. The second store was opened in 1909 and the chain gradually grew throughout the greater Chicago area in the following decades.

Things really began to pop in 1922 with the introduction of the milkshake made possible by the introduction of the electric blender in the same year. The 100th store opened in 1926. According to Wikipedia and the company went public in 1927. Walgreens had expanded to 397 stores by 1930.

Charles R. Walgreen, jr took over the company in 1939 (1906 - 2007) and was president until his son Charles R. Walgreens, III took over the position in 1969.

Walgreens continued its gradual expansion. Walgreens exceeded one billion in sales in 1975 and opened its 1000 store in 1984. They doubled in size to 2000 stores by 1994 and to 5000 stores by 2005.

Charles Walgreen, III retired from the board of directors in 2010. There are currently over 8500 Walgreens Stores throughout the nation. >Corporate Headquarters are in Deerfiedl, Il. Walgreens trades on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol WAG. The Yahoo Profile says the chain employs over 170,000 people.

Corporate History

This section provides a summary of the acquisition chain of Walgreens. The company has grown largely through internal growth (building its own stores). I do not include total store count.

• 1901: Charles R. Walgreen, a pharmacist, acquired the store of his employer.
• 1909: Walgreen opened its second store. This one had a soda fountain.
• 1916: Company incorporates at Walgreen Co. with 9 stores.
• 1927: Walgreens issues IPO.
• 1943: Justin Whitlock Dart divorces Ruth Walgreen. Dart joins United Drug Company to expand the Rexall buyer's cooperative.
• 1946: Walgreens acquired a 27% interest (later increased to 44%) in Sanborn's—which owned drug stores and restaurants in Mexico.
• 1960's: Walgreens replaced soda fountains with in store restaurants including Villager Room, Corky's and Robin Hood.
• 1962 Walgreen acquired assets of United Mercantile Inc. which owned Globe Shopping Center and became a discount department store.
• 1974: Walgreens opened Wag's restaurant.
• 1974: Walgreens acquired Liggett which had 29 pharmacies in Florida.
• 1975: Sales surpass the $1 billion mark.
• 1977: Hugo Mann attempted to sell FedMart to Walgreens.
• 1980: Walgreens acquired Rennehbohm of Wisconsin which had 17 drug stores, two clinic pharmacies, 2 beauty stores and 6 cafeterias.
• 1981 Walgreen bought 21 Kroger SuperX stores in Houston.
• 1984: Walgreens opens it 1,000th store.
• 1984: Walgreens sold its holdings in Sanborn's.
• 1986: Walgreens acquired Medi Mart which had 66 stores in New England.
• 1987: Walgreen sold its 87 freestanding Wag's restaurants to Marriott Corporation
• 1986: Walgreens acquired Ribordy based in Indiana.
• 1991: Walgreens created a mail pharmacy called Healthcare Plus.
• 1991: They changed Healthcare Plus into a pharmacy benefits company called WHP Health Initiatives, Inc..
• 1997: Walgreens formed partnership with Itochu Corp. to establish a 500 store chain in Japan.
• 2003: Walgreens acquired Hi-School Pharmacy out of Portland, Or.
• 2006: Walgreens acquired the Happy Harry's chain in De, Pa, Me and NJ.
• 2008: Walgreens purchased 20 stores in Puerto Rico from Farmacias El Amal.
• 2010: Walgreens acquired Duane Reade out of NYC for$1.075.
• 2011: Walgreens acquired Drugstore.com for $409 million. They also owned Beauty.com.
• 2012-2014: Wallgreens acquired Alliance Boot based in Bern, Switzerland from Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts

  History of Alliance Boots

  Alliance Boots is an international Pharmaceutical with revenues of £23.4 billion.

  • 2006: The UK based Boots Group merged with Alliance UniChem to create Alliance Boots

    History of Boots Group

    • 1849: John Boot establshed the company in Nottingham.
    • 1883: company incorporated as Boot and Co. Ltd.
    • 1888: company changed its named to Boots Pure Drug Company Ltd.
    • 1898: firm created Boots Book-Lovers' Library which was a book lending library.
    • 1968: Boots acquired Timothy Whites and Taylors Ltd which had 622 stores.
    • 1978: Boots acquired Tamblyn Drugs based in Canada.
    • 1989: Started PharmaPlus in Canada and rebranded most stores.
    • 1987: Boots acquired Clement Clarke Ltd along with Curry and Paxton Ltd. to create Boots Opticians Ltd.
    • 1998: Boots entered the field of dentistry.

    History of Alliance UniChem

    • Stefano Pessina, who is now the largest shareholder of Walgreens, founded Alleanza Farmaceutica
    • 1997: company expanded to form Alliance Santé SA
    • 1997: Alliance merged with UniChem PLC to form Alliance UniChem.
    • 1997: Bought majority stake in Grupo Safa—a pharmaceutical company from Spain.
    • 1999: formed partnership with Galenica AG of Switzerland.
    • 1999: created Alliance Farmacie in Italy.
    • 2000: Alliance acquired the Dutch firms Interpharm and De Vier Vijzels.
    • 2001 Alliance formed a strategic wholesale pharmaceutical partnership with Hedef Holding of Turkey.
    • 2002: Alliance UniChem bought Holtung based in Norway.
    • 2005: Alliance Unichem acquired Alloga based in Switzerland.
    • 2005: Alliance UniChem acquired Farmacen—a pharmaceutical wholesaler based in Spain.
    • 2005: Alliance UniChem acquired Bairds Chemist out of Northern Ireland.
  • 2007: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquired Alliance Boots. for £12.4 billion.
  • 2009: Boots acquired optician Dollond & Aitchison which was founded in 1750 (The oldest firm in the chain).
• 2012: Walgreens acquired USA Drug, Super D Drug, May's Drug, Med-X, and Drug Warehouse from LaFrance Holdings. The chain had 160 stores.
  • 1986: The company was founded in Pine Bluff, Ar.
• 2013: Walgreens acquired Kerr Drug.

  History of Kerr Drug

  • 1951: Banks Kerr founded firm in Raleigh, NC.
  • 1995: JC Penney acquired Kerr which had 97 stores.
  • 1996: JC Penney acquired Eckerd Drugs. The FTC required that it divest stores. They spun these off as a new chain called Kerr Drug with 34 stores.
• 2015-2018: Walgreens announced acquisition of Rite-Aid in a $9.4 billion deal.
• 2016: Walgreens formed a partnership with UHG / OptumRX to deliver health benefits.
• 2018: Walgreens acquired PharMerica Corp for $1.4 billion from KKR

  History of PharMerica

  PharMerica was a leading institutional pharmacy with about $2 billion in annual revenue. Walgreens might be keeping their brand alive. Here is their web site

  • 2007: The company began when Kindred Healthcare and AmerisourceBergen spun off their pharmacies to create a really large institutional pharmacy called PharMerica which had about $1.9 billion in sales.
  • 2012: The FTC blocked a takeover attempt by Omnicare.
  • 2017: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquired the company.
• 2019: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts made an official pitch to buy Walgreens.⁴

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References:

1. Wikipedia - Walgreens (Drawn 11/12/2019)
2. BizJournals - Walgreens KKR Complete $1.4 B acquisition of PharMerica (Drawn 6/26/2018)
3. Walgreens Completes Acquisition of USA Drug (Drawn 6/26/2018)
4. Supermarket News - KKR Pitch to Buy Walgreens (Drawn 11/12/2019)

Directory Listings:

• Denver Color - Drug Stores: Walgreens
• Grand Junction - Pharmacy: Walgreens
• Pueblo Color - Shopping: Walgreens
• Steamboat Springs Me - Shopping: Walgreens
• Internet Rivers - Medical Products: Walgreens
• Missoula Websites - Personal Care: Walgreens
• Cedar City - Shopping: Walgreens
• Logan Utah - Shopping: Walgreens
• Ogden, Utah - Shopping: Walgreens
• Provo Utah - Personal Care: Walgreens
• Saint George - Shopping: Walgreens
• Salt Lake Sites - Pharmacy ℞: Walgreens
• Tooele - Shopping: Walgreens
• Vernal, Utah. US - Shopping: Walgreens
• Wasatch Color - Shopping: Walgreens
• Cheyenne, Wyoming. US - Shopping: Walgreens
• Laramie, Wyoming - Shopping: Walgreens

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