CVS Health said it will buy the retail and specialty pharmacy business of Schnuck Markets, a large Midwestern grocer with 110 pharmacies.
CVS said it will “acquire and operate 99 of the grocer’s pharmacies and will brand them as CVS Pharmacy,” the company said.
The pharmacies are located inside of the Schnuck grocery stores though not all of them will continue to operate. “CVS Pharmacy and its subsidiaries will acquire the prescription files from 11 Schnucks pharmacies and transfer them to nearby CVS Pharmacy locations,” CVS said in a release Tuesday.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed but it will bring a substantial presence to CVS in the Midwest where rival Walgreens Boots Alliance has a larger market share. Schnucks has more than 110 stores in five states: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa, the company’s website says.
CVD said the arrangement with Schnuck is similar to an acquisition the drugstore chain made of the pharmacies inside Target stores five years ago. “By opening CVS Pharmacy locations within Schnucks stores, we’re increasing access to high quality care and meeting customers where they are,” CVS Health chief operating officer Jon Roberts said.
Schnucks said the deal fits its effort to expand its “emphasis on health and wellness” by aligning with CVS.
“This partnership allows us to continue to provide quality pharmacy services to our customers in a manner they’ve come to expect, while supporting our mission to nourish people’s lives,” Todd Schnuck, chairman and chief executive officer of Schnucks said Tuesday. “It also provides our pharmacy teammates an opportunity to further their careers with a premier retail pharmacy chain.”
Credit: Forbes.com By: Bruce Japsen
