Walgreens Cuts Internal Media-Buying Team Amid Strategic Shift

Walgreens laid off its media-buying crew in July, ADWEEK has realized. The cuts quantity to about 15 positions, in keeping with one supply with direct data.The modifications come as Walgreens refocuses on its core retail and pharmacy operations. In its Q3 earnings, Walgreens reported a $175 million loss, although gross sales rose 7% to $39 billion. Personal fairness agency Sycamore Companions finalized its $10 billion all-cash acquisition of Walgreens on Thursday.A spokesperson for Walgreens acknowledged the job cuts however declined to say how many individuals had been laid off. The spokesperson mentioned the cuts usually are not associated to the Sycamore acquisition.“We not too long ago restructured our media crew to drive higher effectivity and accountability,” the Walgreens spokesperson mentioned in a press release to ADWEEK. “As a part of this shift, we made the troublesome choice to transition a small variety of paid media duties to an company associate.”Walgreens additionally named retail veteran Mike Motz, former Staples CEO, as its chief govt on Thursday, changing Tim Wentworth, who led the corporate for the previous two years. Sycamore acquired Staples in 2017 for $6.9 billion. The administration shake-up comes as Walgreens has struggled to develop into broader healthcare companies past its pharmacy operation. Efforts to diversify—together with an in-store clinic rollout—failed to achieve traction, prompting retailer closures to chop debt and losses.Walgreens reportedly invested greater than $6 billion below former CEO Roz Brewer to take a controlling stake in VillageMD, a physician-staffed clinic operator, with plans to open about 700 “Village Medical at Walgreens” clinics throughout greater than 30 U.S. markets between 2020 and 2025. However the rollout has slowed dramatically since, partly as a result of clinics struggled to fill affected person panels. In the meantime, the funding contributed to greater than $8 billion in web losses for fiscal 2024, in keeping with Walgreens.