Bright yellow robotic arms are becoming a bigger part of Walgreens’ (NASDAQ:WBA) workforce.
Inside of a large facility in the Dallas area, they fill thousands of prescriptions for customers who take medications to manage or treat high blood pressure, diabetes or other conditions.
Each robot can fill 300 prescriptions in an hour, the company said — roughly the same number that a typical Walgreens pharmacy with a handful of staff may do in a day.
Walgreens Boots Alliance is opening the automated, centralized hubs to keep up in the fast-changing pharmacy industry. The pandemic has intensified the drugstore chain’s need to stay relevant as online pharmacies siphon off sales and more customers have items from toilet paper to toothpaste delivered to their doorstep.
That has forced Walgreens and its competitors, CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) and Rite Aid (NYSE:RAD), to rethink the role of their stores and pharmacists.
Walgreens’ new CEO, former Starbucks operating chief Roz Brewer, wants to make health care the company’s “growth engine.” It acquired the majority stake of VillageMD, a primary care company, and iA, a pharmacy and health-care automation technology company that is helping it build out the centralized hubs. It is exploring a potential sale of its U.K.-based Boots business.
By 2025, as much as half of Walgreens’ prescription volume from stores could be filled at the automated centers, said Rex Swords, who oversees facilities as Walgreens’ group president of centralized services, operations and planning.
WBA shares poked ahead 15 cents to $47.97 to begin Wednesday trading.
