Personnel Updates

• The Bartell Drug Company (36) has named Kelly Kennedy as CFO and Kari Escobedo as Senior VP Information Technology.

• Cardinal Health Inc. (21) announced Victor Crawford as the new CEO of its pharmaceutical segment, effective November 12.

• Rite Aid Corporation (82) announced the company is separating the positions of CEO and Chairman. Bruce Bodaken, currently a Director, will become Chairman. John Standley will remain CEO. The change takes place at the end of October.

Mergers and Acquisitions

• CVS Health announced that it has entered into an agreement that allows it to proceed with its proposed acquisition of Aetna.

Industry Insight

• Perfumania Holdings has opened a new prototype. Located in Denver, CO, the 900 sq. ft. space is designed to engage and educate shoppers, and serve as an interactive fragrance hub.

• Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Birchbox announced a partnership. The companies said they will build the Birchbox retail experience in Walgreens stores. Walgreens also announced that it would be acquiring a minority interest in Birchbox. The initial pilot will include 11 Walgreens locations across major cities within the country, rolling out from December to early 2019.

• Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Kroger Co. are testing a new store format at 13 Walgreens stores in Northern Kentucky. Customers will be able to order Kroger grocery items online and pick up the orders at the participating Walgreens locations. In addition, grocery items from Kroger’s private-label line will also be available in-store at participating Walgreens locations.

• Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and LabCorp are expanding their partnership in a big way. The two companies said Wednesday they would be opening at least 600 LabCorp patient service centers inside Walgreens U.S. locations in the next four years.

Real Estate

• Diplomat Pharmacy announced it is opening a 75,000 sq. ft. facility in Chandler, AZ.

• Genoa Healthcare recently opened its first pharmacy in California.

• Orangetheory Fitness has announced plans to open 260 new stores this year.

Just because we don’t mention it here doesn’t mean it didn’t happen – or we didn’t capture it. In the past four weeks, we’ve updated more than 3,896 companies in the Drug Stores and HBC Chains Database, with many of those companies’ records updated at multiple points.