Walgreen warms to mail-order; Drug chain joining trend it's fighting.(News)

Crain's Chicago Business, February, 2005 by Jones, Sandra

Byline: SANDRA JONES Walgreen Co., the nation's largest drugstore chain, is angling for a bigger slice of the surging mail-order prescription drug business, even as it tries to blunt mail order's growth with hard-line tactics. The Deerfield-based company's $1-billion mail-order business accounted for a mere 2.7% of its $37.51 billion in total sales for the fiscal year ended Aug.

31. For the most part, Walgreen has considered the unit a window on its new competition. But as more employers latch onto mail order as a way to cut health care costs, the company is starting to view it as a growth engine. "Now we're making it more of a focus,'' Chairman and CEO David Bernauer said after the company's annual meeting last month. Walgreen "intends to grow'' the...