Walgreens is closing 200 stores in the US

Bethany Biron

August 6, 2019 10:17 PM

Walgreens said in an SEC filing on Tuesday that it will close 200 stores in the US, after first announcing plans to shutter 200 stores in the UK on a call with investors in May.

FILE PHOTO: A sign rests on a counter at a Walgreens pharmacy store in Austin, TX, U.S., March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Khursheed

A Walgreens spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement that the US closures will impact less than 3% of its overall stores and that the company anticipates "minimal disruption to customers and patients."
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Walgreens said in an SEC filing on Tuesday that it plans to shutter 200 stores in the US.

The announcement comes after the drugstore brand shared it would close 200 Boots locations in the UK during a call with investors at the end of May. According to the filing, Walgreens conducted an extensive review of its real estate footprint in the US as part of an effort to increase operations efficiencies.

"As previously announced, we are undertaking a transformational cost management program to accelerate the ongoing transformation of our business, enable investments in key areas and to become a more efficient enterprise," a Walgreens spokesperson wrote in a statement to Business Insider. "As part of this effort, we plan to close approximately 200 stores in the US."

Walgreens, which has more than 9,560 total stores in the US , does not anticipate the closures will have a significant impact on the business, according to the spokesperson.

"Given that these closures will represent less than 3 percent of our stores overall, and given that we have multiple locations in many markets, we anticipate minimal disruption to customers and patients," the spokesperson wrote in the statement. "We also anticipate being able to retain the majority of the impacted store team members in other nearby locations."

The spokesperson said that Walgreens does not plan to make the list of store locations available at this time.

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