About Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. operates as an integrated healthcare, pharmacy and retail leader in caring for customers and patients. The company is one of the largest retail pharmacy, health and daily living destinations across the United States (U.S.) and Europe. It has a presence in 9 countries. In addition, the company is one of the world's largest purchasers of prescription drugs and many other health and well-being products. The company is reimagining local healthcare and well-being for all as part of its purpose - to create more joyful lives through better health. By dispensing medicines, improving access to a wide range of health services, providing health and beauty products and offering anytime, anywhere convenience across its digital platforms, the company is shaping the future of healthcare in the thousands of communities it serves. The company is going beyond pharmacy to coordinate with health plans and health systems, as well as with providers to engage patients in underserved communities to help improve the quality of care and outcomes, while also lowering overall costs. The company offers a connected healthcare experience that can help drive better outcomes within communities, as it continues to accelerate the shift to value-based care, which prioritizes quality of patient care over quantity of services provided. The company's deepened focus on healthcare includes expanding services across primary, multi-specialty and urgent care providers serving patients in traditional clinic settings, in patients' homes and virtual platforms. The company provides customers with convenient, omni-channel access through its portfolio of retail and business brands, which includes retail drugstores Walgreens, Boots, Duane Reade, Benavides and Ahumada as well its product brands, such as No7, Soap & Glory, Free & Pure, NICE!, Liz Earle, Botanics, Sleek MakeUP and YourGoodSkin. The company's health and beauty product brands are enhanced by its in-house product research and development capabilities. The company's U.S. Healthcare segment is a consumer-centric, technology enabled healthcare business that is powered by a nationally scaled, locally delivered healthcare platform, organically developed clinical programs and strategic collaboration with its majority-owned businesses, including Village Practice Management Company, LLC (VillageMD), Shields Health Solutions Parent, LLC (Shields) and CCX Next, LLC (CareCentrix). The company is working to build a personalized, omni-channel experience across a world-class healthcare services organization, investing in primary care and the post-acute care management journey. Segments The company operates through three segments: U.S. Retail Pharmacy, International, and U.S. Healthcare. U.S. Retail Pharmacy The company's U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment includes the Walgreens business which consist of the operations of retail drugstores, health and wellness services, specialty and home delivery pharmacy services. Sales for the segment are principally derived from the sale of prescription drugs and a wide assortment of retail products, including health and wellness, beauty, personal care and consumables and general merchandise. The U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment (excluding equity method investments) has pharmacy-led health and beauty retail offerings in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The company operates retail stores in the segment. The principal retail pharmacy brands in the segment are Walgreens and Duane Reade. The company is a market leader in the U.S. and, as of August 31, 2023, approximately 78% of the population of the U.S. lived within five miles of a Walgreens or Duane Reade retail pharmacy. The company focuses on creating a neighborhood health destination and a more modern pharmacy aligned to a wider range of healthcare services. Significant investments have accelerated the company's customer-centric approach, with specific focus on transforming omni-channel capabilities and offerings across retail and healthcare. The company's services help improve health outcomes for patients and manage costs for payors, including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and the public sector. The company utilizes its retail network as a channel to provide health and wellness services to its customers and patients, as illustrated by the company's ability to play a significant role in providing vaccinations. Additionally, through its key collaborations, the company intends to develop new healthcare delivery models and to improve the speed, efficiency and safety of the prescription fulfillment process. The company has taken further steps to develop its neighborhood health destinations, to provide an integrated primary care and pharmacy model that aims to drive better health outcomes, reduce costs and provide a differentiated patient experience to the communities it serves. The company also provides specialty pharmacy and mail services and offers certain other health and wellness services throughout the U.S. The company employs more than 85,000 healthcare service providers, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, nurse practitioners and other health related professionals. This segment provides customers with convenient, omni-channel access to consumer goods and services, including own branded general merchandise, such as NICE!, Free & Pure, No7, and Soap & Glory, as well as pharmacy and health and wellness services in communities across the U.S. Integrated with the company's e-commerce platform, the Walgreens mobile application allows customers to refill prescriptions through scan technology, receive notifications when a refill is due and choose their delivery option, which includes in-store pick up, drive-through or delivery to their home. The myWalgreens customer loyalty program provides an interface for customers to access the company's enhanced and growing digital offering. The program allows members to receive discounts, in addition to earning Walgreens Cash rewards on storewide purchases. The number of myWalgreens members continues to grow and as of August 31, 2023, totaled approximately 113 million. The Walgreens Find Care platform also includes telehealth service providers, connecting patients and customers with options to access convenient and affordable care from their mobile devices. Additionally, the company has expanded the retail functionality of its mobile application, such as extending drive-through service to include retail products, curbside collection for online orders and same day offerings, including pick up orders within 30 minutes. The segment is also implementing new approaches to promotions, product selection and other areas to deliver greater value to its customers in its stores. The components of the segment's sales are Pharmacy (the sale of prescription drugs and provision of pharmacy-related services) and Retail (the sale of healthcare and retail products, including non-prescription drugs, health and wellness, beauty and personal care, and consumables and general merchandise). The segment's sales are subject to the influence of seasonality, particularly the cough, cold and flu seasons and winter holiday. This seasonality also can affect the segment's proportion of sales between Retail and Pharmacy during certain periods. The company filled 801 million prescriptions (including vaccinations) in the segment in fiscal 2023. Adjusted to 30-day equivalents, prescriptions filled were 1.2 billion in fiscal 2023. The company fills prescriptions under Medicare, Medicaid and other publicly financed or sponsored health benefit and prescription drug plans and programs, including the federal 340B drug pricing program. Sales where reimbursement is received from managed care organizations, governmental agencies, PBMs and private insurance were approximately 97% of the segment's fiscal 2023 Pharmacy sales. The company fills prescriptions for many state and federal governmental health care programs, including Medicare Part D plans and Medicaid public assistance programs contributing to approximately 23% and 6%, respectively, of the segment's fiscal 2023 sales. The company's myWalgreens Credit Card program features the myWalgreens Mastercard and the myWalgreens Credit Card. These cards are the first ever of their kind to reward more personalized wellbeing choices and offer industry-leading rewards at Walgreens locations, Walgreens.com, Duane Reade stores, via the Walgreens mobile app, and wherever Mastercard is accepted. The company has also worked to develop and expand its relationships with commercial third-party payors to enable new and/or improved market access via participation in pharmacy provider networks they offer. International This segment consists of pharmacy-led health and beauty retail businesses outside the U.S. and the pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution business in Germany. Pharmacy-led health and beauty retail businesses include Boots branded stores in the United Kingdom (U.K.), the Republic of Ireland and Thailand, the Benavides brand in Mexico and the Ahumada brand in Chile. Sales for these businesses are principally derived from the sale of prescription drugs and health and wellness, beauty, personal care and other consumer products. The company operates retail stores in the segment and has grown its omni-channel platform, including its online presence, in recent years. In the U.K., the company is a market leader and its retail stores are conveniently located with pharmacists well placed to provide a significant role in the provision of healthcare services, working closely with other primary healthcare providers in the communities the company serves. The Boots omni-channel offering is differentiated from that of competitors due to the product brands the company owns, such as No7, Liz Earle, Soap & Glory, Botanics, Sleek MakeUp, Boots Pharmaceuticals and 'only at Boots' exclusive products, together with its long-established reputation for trust and customer care. The company's brands portfolio is enhanced by its in-house product research and development capabilities. The company has introduced new beauty brands and beauty halls in key locations. Certain of the product brands of the company are also sold by third-party retailers. The company's retail store networks are typically complemented by online platforms. In the U.K., through the boots.com website and integrated mobile application, the 'click and collect' service normally allows customers to order from a range of over 41,000 products online and collect the following day from approximately 75% of the U.K.'s retail stores. The Boots Advantage Card loyalty program, where customers earn points on purchases for redemption at a later date, continues to be a key element of the Boots offering. As of August 31, 2023, the number of active Boots Advantage Card members (members who have used their card in the last six months) totaled approximately 14 million. In addition, Boots in the U.K. is one of the leaders in the optical market with 543 practices, of which 164 operated on a franchise basis as of August 31, 2023. Approximately 30% of these optical practices are located in Boots stores with the balance being standalone optical practices. The components of the segment's sales are Pharmacy (typically the sale of prescription drugs and provision of pharmacy-related services, subject to variation in particular jurisdictions depending upon regulatory and other factors) and Retail (primarily the sale of health and beauty products, including beauty, toiletries and lifestyle merchandising, non-prescription drugs and, in the U.K., the provision of optical services). Further, the segment also has a wholesale business in Germany with 32 distribution centers which distribute prescription medicines to pharmacies and other similar healthcare facilities. The segment's sales are subject to the influence of seasonality, with the second fiscal quarter (year ended August 31, 2023) typically the strongest as a result of the winter holiday period. This seasonality affects the segment's proportion of sales between Retail and Pharmacy during certain periods. In addition, performance as measured in U.S. dollars is impacted by the exchange rates used to translate these amounts into U.S. dollars, the exchange rate of British pound sterling being the most significant. U.S. Healthcare The company's U.S. Healthcare segment, created at the beginning of fiscal 2022, is a consumer-centric, technology-enabled healthcare business that engages consumers through a personalized, omni-channel experience across the care journey. The U.S. Healthcare segment delivers improved health outcomes and lower costs for payors and providers by delivering care through owned and partnered assets. The U.S. Healthcare segment consists of a majority position in VillageMD, a national provider of value-based care with primary, multi-specialty, and urgent care providers serving patients in traditional clinic settings, in patients' homes and online appointments; Shields, a specialty pharmacy integrator and accelerator for hospitals; CareCentrix, a participant in the post-acute and home care management sectors, and the Walgreens Health organic business that contracts with payors and providers to deliver clinical healthcare services to their members and members' caregivers through both digital and physical channels. Seasonal Variations in Business The company's business is affected by a number of factors, including, among others, the severity of COVID-19 and the efficacy of vaccines, its sales performance during holiday periods (including particularly the winter holiday season) and during the cough, cold and flu season (the timing and severity of which is difficult to predict), significant weather conditions, the timing of its own or competitor discount programs and pricing actions and the timing of changes in levels of reimbursement from governmental agencies and other third-party payors. Acquisitions On December 28, 2022, the company acquired the remaining 30% equity interest in Shields Health Solutions Parent, LLC (Shields). On March 31, 2023, the company acquired the remaining 45% equity interest in CCX Next, LLC (CareCentrix). On January 3, 2023, Village Practice Management Company, LLC (VillageMD), through its parent company, following an internal reorganization, completed the acquisition of WP CityMD TopCo (Summit), a provider of primary, specialty and urgent care. Dispositions In fiscal 2023, the company sold its remaining interest in Option Care Health, Inc. In fiscal 2023, the company sold its shares of Cencora, Inc. (Cencora). Customers The company sells to numerous retail and wholesale customers. The company also provides healthcare services to healthcare payors' eligible members, cash-pay patients, and health systems and provider groups. In fiscal 2023, substantially all of the company's retail pharmacy and healthcare services sales were to customers covered by third-party payors (e.g., PBMs, insurance companies and governmental agencies) that agree to pay for all or a portion of a customer's eligible prescription purchases. Three third-party payors accounted for approximately 33% of the company's consolidated sales in fiscal 2023 (year ended August 31, 2023). Regulation In the countries in which the company does business, it is subject to national, state and local laws, regulations and administrative practices concerning healthcare, retail and wholesale pharmacy operations, including regulations relating to the company's filling of prescriptions under Medicare, Medicaid and other publicly financed or sponsored health benefit plan and prescription drug plans and programs, including the federal 340B drug pricing program; regulations prohibiting kickbacks, beneficiary inducement and the submission of false claims; the Stark Law; the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); the Affordable Care Act (ACA); the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA); licensure and registration requirements concerning the operation of pharmacies and the practice of pharmacy; and regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as well as regulations promulgated by comparable foreign, state and local governmental authorities concerning the operation of the company's businesses. History Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. was founded in 1909. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 2014.