Walgreens Dec. Sales Up 10.2% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Drugstore chain Walgreen Co. (WAG) reported that its sales for December advanced by 10.2 percent to $7.92 billion from $7.18 billion last year. Total front-end sales rose by 3.5 percent year-over-year, and comparable-store front-end sales increased by 2.6 percent. Monthly customer traffic in comparable stores went up by 0.3 percent with basket size rising 2.3 percent.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores grew 7.8 percent in December and by 5.7 percent on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis. This year's December had an additional Wednesday and one fewer Sunday compared with December 2013. These calendar shifts positively impacted prescriptions filled at comparable stores by 2.1 percentage points.

Walgreens opened four stores and closed four during December.

On December 31, Walgreen Co. and Alliance Boots GmbH completed Step 2 of their strategic partnership to form Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA), finalizing the two step merger launched in 2012.