Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., established in 1901 and based in Deerfield, Illinois, operates as a leading global retailer focused on pharmacy, health, ...
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) is an integrated healthcare, pharmacy, and retail business operating primarily through a pharmacy-led model in the United States and a comparable pharmacy-plus-health-and-beauty model internationally. The company’s purpose is to help customers and patients live healthier lives by making medicines and everyday health products accessible through ...Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) is an integrated healthcare, pharmacy, and retail business operating primarily through a pharmacy-led model in the United States and a comparable pharmacy-plus-health-and-beauty model internationally. The company’s purpose is to help customers and patients live healthier lives by making medicines and everyday health products accessible through physical stores and digital platforms.
Business and operations are organized into two principal divisions. In the United States, Walgreens operates a large community pharmacy footprint that dispenses prescription drugs and offers a broad assortment of retail goods, including health and wellness products, beauty and personal care items, and general merchandise. It also provides pharmacy-centric services such as centralized pharmacy services and prescription mail delivery. Walgreens operates under store banners including Walgreens and Duane Reade and also includes specialty pharmacy capabilities.
Internationally, WBA’s activities focus on selling prescription medications and health/beauty products through pharmacy-centric health and beauty retail locations and additional service formats such as optical practices. The International segment also includes online retail (e.g., via boots.com) and a mobile application, supporting omnichannel access to health and beauty offerings. In addition, the company engages in pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution activities (notably within Germany), which helps support supply for broader healthcare and retail ecosystems.
From a scale perspective, the company has historically operated thousands of stores across multiple countries and served a very large daily customer base. The provided information references roughly 8,965 retail outlets in the U.S. under Walgreens and Duane Reade (as of August 31, 2021) and an International store portfolio of 4,031 retail locations across countries including the U.K., Thailand, Norway, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Mexico, and Chile (as of August 31, 2021), along with optical practices.
In terms of cost and business model implications, WBA’s retail-pharmacy structure typically involves significant fixed and operating costs tied to store networks, inventory management for fast-moving consumer health/beauty items, and labor required for pharmacy operations and customer service. It also relies on efficient procurement and supply chain execution for both pharmaceuticals and non-pharmacy retail products, plus recurring technology and fulfillment costs for omnichannel services (e.g., mail delivery and online ordering). Financially, the business model is characterized by pharmacy reimbursement dynamics and retail margin performance, alongside working-capital movements driven by inventory, receivables, and payables—factors that can influence short-term cash generation even when customer demand is steady.
Key leadership includes CEO Timothy C. Wentworth, with additional executive leadership such as Ornella Barra (COO) and Stefano Pessina as executive chairman (as referenced in the provided key-people information). Overall, Walgreens Boots Alliance combines community pharmacy services with health and beauty retail and related distribution capabilities, aiming to maintain accessibility for patients and customers while supporting growth through operational efficiency and omnichannel expansion.
YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength.
QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes.
RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three).
$147.7B
+6.2%
+1.0%
Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day.
$-8.6B
-180.4%
+93.9%
Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials.
+18.0%
-7.7%
-7.1%
Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on).
-9.5%
-92.7%
+102.7%
Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales.
-5.8%
-164.1%
+93.9%
Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock.
$-363.0M
-357.4%
+180.4%
FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine.
-0.2%
-342.5%
+179.6%
Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe.
323.3%
+93.0%
-7.6%
Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking.
0.68x
+7.7%
-1.0%
Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground.
Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Walgreens Boots Alliance First Quarter Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Eric Wasserstrom, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Eric Wasserstrom: Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the Walgreens Boots Alliance earnings call for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. I'm Eric Wasserstrom, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Joining me on today's call are Tim Wentworth, our Chief Executive Officer, and Manmohan Mahajan, Global Chief Financial Officer. In addition, Mary Langowski, Executive Vice President and President of Walgreens Health, Rick Gates, Senior Vice President and Walgreens Chief Pharmacy Officer, and Tracey Brown, President of Walgreens Retail, Chief Customer Officer, will participate in the Q&A. As always, during the conference call, we anticipate making projections and forward-looking statements on our current expectations. Our actual results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including those listed on slide two and outlined in our latest Form 10-Ks filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement after this presentation, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, or otherwise. You can find our press release and slides referenced in this call in the Investor Relations section of the Walgreens Boots Alliance website. During this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, and the reconciliations are set forth in the press release. You may also refer to the slides posted in the Investors section of our website for reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures discussed during this earnings call. We encourage you to review the comparable GAAP measures and reconciliation to non-GAAP values in the other earnings materials we provided. I will now turn the call over to Tim.
Tim Wentworth: Thanks, Eric, and good morning, everyone. We've started the fiscal year by making progress against our financial and strategic priorities, despite the challenging backdrop for our consumer. Our operating earnings in the period were driven by cost management initiatives and relative strength in our US pharmacy services businesses, offsetting weakness in our front-end retail business as we work to respond to changing consumer behavior. Among the outcomes we achieved this quarter, in US pharmacy, we maintained script market share. Our international business continued to show strong returns, and our US healthcare segment contributed somewhat …
