Drug store chain Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc reported a 36.8% rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by the addition of Rite Aid stores.
Net income attributable to the company rose to $1.12 billion, or $1.18 per share, in the first quarter ended 30 November from $821 million (€716.2 million), or 81 cents per share, a year earlier.
Sales rose 9.9% to $33.79 billion (€29.5 billion).
“We are pleased to have delivered double digit percentage growth in earnings per share in the first quarter, including solid results in the US. We continue to focus on and invest in transforming our business," commented executive vice chairman and CEO Stefano Pessina.
"We have made good progress on partnerships, including advancing our collaborations with Kroger, FedEx and Humana and, earlier this week, we announced an initiative with Verily to further expand our health care offering. Today we are reaffirming our fiscal 2019 guidance and announcing the launch of a new transformational cost management program, which is targeting annual cost savings of more than $1 billion by the end of the third year, to better position ourselves to meet our long term targets.”
The company agreed to buy 1,932 stores from Rite Aid for $4.38 billion last year.
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