Walgreens lost $1.7B in 3Q as global pandemic tightened grip

The coronavirus pandemic pushed Walgreens to a $1.7 billion loss in the third quarter with customers staying home or limiting shopping to essential supplies from grocery stores

The coronavirus pandemic pushed Walgreens to a $1.7 billion loss in the third quarter with customers staying home or limiting shopping to essential supplies from grocery stores.

The drugstore chain said Thursday that the rapidly spreading virus took a bite of between $700 million and $750 million from sales, with much of the financial damage coming from outside the United States.

Sales at stores in the U.K., where the company furloughed more than 16,000 employees at the peak of the pandemic, dropped 27.7% on a constant currency basis. April foot traffic at Boots stores plunged 85%.

Shares sank more than 4% before the opening bell Thursday.

While stores remained open to provide pharmacy services, Walgreens’ profitable beauty and fragrance counters were closed.

Walgreens booked non-cash impairment charges of $2 billion in the quarter due to its Boots UK operating loss and uncertainty created by COVID-19.

The pandemic has accelerated changes planned for its Boots stores, which includes closing optician locations and job cuts at the U.K. support office. Those changes could mean job cuts exceeding 4,000.

Walgreens posted earnings excluding one-time items of 83 cents per share in the quarter, with total sales growing less than 1%, to $34.63 billion.

Analysts expected per-share earnings of $1.19 and about $34.3 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., based in Deerfield, Illinois, runs more than 9,200 stores in the United States and has more than 18,750 locations internationally.