Revco stirring and beginning to roar

Drug Store News, Feb 6, 1989 by Bruce Buckley

Revco stirring and beginning to roar

"Watch out. The giant is waking up."

That statement, attributed to the top executive of a leading drug chain, refers to Revco. Once the largest and among the most competitive of drug chains, the Twinsburg, Ohio-based company was in a deep snooze for a while.

Based on a recent visit to Revco headquarters and a tour of stores, I'd say Revco has begun to throw off the cobwebs.

In three key areas--people, systems and marketing--Revco has made significant progress since its highly publicized troubles, which culminated in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Perhaps the most difficult challenge has been people. How to keep the fears of all those thousands of employees around the country from curdling into anger, or worse, apathy? Whatever its financial difficulties and problems of supply, Revco opted for open and honest communications, and the decision seems to have paid off. Scripts, its regular newsletter, has projected the strong, clear message of a Revco community (as opposed to the bosses) working to cure the sick man of Twinsburg, Ohio.

Revco hasn't stinted on promotion. It continues to sponsor the annual Cleveland Marathon. Its television advertising series, wrapped around the theme "Revco: a Friend for Life," is a warm, image-building campaign that has grabbed the attention of customers; and its between-the-lines message of company strength and longevity obviously has not been lost on Revco employees either.

The investment in people and promotions has been paralleled by an investment in systems, whose sad state was bemoaned by chief executive Boake Sells soon after he took over in the fall of 1987. After the bankruptcy filing, Revco went to the court and got approval for a POS scanning network.

In a whirlwind of activity, the POS system was installed in 60 stores before Christmas. Additional stores will be equipped this year. Reports based on the projectable data from these stores will have an increasingly important impact on inventory levels and turnover in the months and years to come.

What's more, Revco is about to install an on-line pharmacy computer system which the chain says will rival the best Rx computer networks in the country. One of its biggest strengths will be its ability to quickly validate third-party prescriptions and speed claims payments.

Progress has also been made in the stores. They're looking like drug stores again--a far cry from the junk emporiums they had become in the troubled period surrounding the Odd Lot wars. Not only has the Odd Lot-type merchandise been excised, but so also has the imported televisions, cheap microwaves and KD furniture, which drew no traffic. Now customers who are being drawn back by Revco's hot promotions are finding shelves fully stocked with core drug store merchandise.

The next job will be to finetune department footages and merchandise adjacencies for maximum yield. A prototype will debut in the spring.

The executive quoted in the first paragraph was on target. The caffeine jolt administered by Boake Sells and his new management team has got Revco stirring and beginning to roar. It's a good sound.