Walgreens sees boost in April sales

Walgreens posted April sales of $6.49 billion, an increase of 8.8% from $5.96 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013.



Total front-end sales increased 8.8% in April compared with the same month in fiscal 2013, while same-store front-end sales increased 8.2%. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 2.6% while basket size increased 5.6%.



For the combined March/April period that includes the Easter holiday season impact, comparable store front-end sales increased by 2.1%, while customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 0.9% and basket size increased 3%.



Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased by 3.5% in April and increased 4.3% on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis. April 2014 had one additional Wednesday and one fewer Monday compared with April 2013. The retailer noted that the calendar shifts negatively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 0.8 percentage point.



April pharmacy sales increased by 9.2%. Comparable store pharmacy sales increased 7.3% and increased by a calendar day-shift adjusted 8.1%. Calendar day shifts negatively impacted pharmacy sales in comparable stores by 0.8 percentage point. Calendar day-shift adjusted comparable store pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 1.3 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months. Pharmacy sales accounted for 64.5% of total sales for the month, the company stated.



Sales in comparable stores increased by 7.6% in April. Calendar day shifts negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.5 percentage point. Generic drug introductions in the last 12 months negatively impacted total comparable sales by 0.8 percentage point.



Sales for the combined months of March and April 2014 increased 6.6% from the same two months in 2013. Comparable store sales for the March/April period increased 5.5%.