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| Statement |
|---|
| Strong trends in pharmacy margin due to better than expected recovery rate |
| We also made good progress on our turnaround, particularly in our initiatives to control SG&A spend, grow scripts, and reduce drug purchasing costs |
| Shifting to our core PBM business, while it is still early in the selling season, we are encouraged by the positive feedback we have received from the market in terms of our competitive position |
| Elixir's EBITDA margins are higher by 28 basis points, reflective of a more favorable mix of business, procurement economic improvements and SG&A reductions |
| On the pharmacy side, we had a strong quarter in script growth, the 7.4% without COVID |
| The performance acceleration model we put in place at the end of last year is gaining momentum and traction, and we continue to find opportunities to drive growth, increase efficiency, and deliver positive results as we execute |
| We believe that the work we are doing now will continue to benefit the business and our financial performance, not only in fiscal 2024, but also in fiscal 2025 and 2026 and beyond |
| We are focused on setting the right foundation for long term success built on the bedrock of our valuable market position, strong relationships with customers and clients, and a trusted brand |
| Strong procurement economics have allowed us to bring competitive pricing for our core PBM offering and we continue to make investments in market facing functions and capabilities, while tightly managing SG&A |
| We believe that when taken together, these improvements are indicative of the potential growth prospects for our pharmacy business |
| We're now rolling that program out to all stores, which we expect to complete by the end of July and are seeing consistent improvement |
| And we had a pretty solid retention of scripts, and we're able to keep a lot of those scripts |
| We offset these headwinds with strong script growth, better than expected recovery rate and generic drug settlements |
| We continue to make strides in adherence, driven by a strong 10.3% year-over-year increase in courtesy refills |
| We also see additional upside as we continue implementing our initiatives to improve adherence |
| Pharmacy gross profit benefited from strong script growth, a better than expected recovery rate and generic drug settlements, which offset the reduction in COVID vaccine and testing volume |
| We are ahead of our plan for first quarter despite headwinds that include soft front-end sales in the retail pharmacy segment and higher than expected medical loss ratio at Elixir Insurance |
| The pharmacy sales increase was driven by an increase in sales of [Ozempic] (ph) and other GLP-1s, which have a high sales amount per script |
| We continue to drive script growth through adherence initiatives and getting our fair share of prescriptions from the Kroger ESI dispute |
| I'm inspired by our team's ongoing resolve and commitment to making our business successful |
| So I don't think there's a silver bullet to solving this, but we're excited about the new leader we've brought in |
| We saw retail SG&A improvements of approximately $5 million from cost control initiatives and store closures |
| For example, we saw good results from a pilot we conducted to reduce abandoned scripts |
| We expect to generate a working capital benefit in fiscal 2024 from reductions in prescription brand inventory, SKU rationalization and reductions in seasonal merchandise |
| Adjusted EBITDA SG&A at retail improved by $4.8 million or 46 basis points versus prior year, due to continued cost control from our transformation initiatives and lower occupancy due to store closures |
| We are, as Matt said, encouraged by both the number of RFPs that we're seeing as well as the lives associated with those |
| And as we work through our renewals so far as we move through the season, we're real happy with where we sit there |
| And overall, I would say our drug purchasing numbers ended up being a little better in the first quarter than what we thought it would be |
| We're working with urgency to address these drivers to improve front-end performance, specifically we recently completed the transition of vendors for perishable consumable items, which we believe should alleviate the pressures we saw in the category in first quarter |
| Same store sales for the first quarter increased 8.4% over the prior year period consisting of a 13.3% increase in pharmacy sales that were partially offset by a 4.4% decrease in front-end sales |
| Statement |
|---|
| Rite Aid's front-end gross profit dollars were negatively impacted by our soft front-end sales and higher than expected shrink |
| On the front-end, it's a challenging front-end environment |
| We saw a decline in transactions in our stores, driven by a reduction in demand for respiratory related products, some inventory challenges with the transition of our perishable food vendors, and some inefficient pricing |
| The loss of our auto assignee population in 23 of the regions coupled with adverse selection among those choosing to remain in the plan during annual enrollment |
| Respiratory from allergy, cough, cold, and flu wasn't as strong as last year, we faced supply chain challenges related to the supplier transition in many of our perishable consumer goods, and shrink continued to be a significant headwind |
| From a testing standpoint, we dispensed about $2.5 million antigen kits this quarter, lower than last year's first quarter as well |
| Revenues were $1.2 billion for the quarter, a decrease of 30% compared to prior year quarter |
| In first quarter, our transactions on a comp store basis were down 7.9% with the clients in selected health and consumables categories |
| Front-end same store sales excluding cigarettes and tobacco products decreased 3.8% |
| But we expect these benefits to be less than initially anticipated |
| Offsetting those were front-end sales comps of negative 3.8%, excluding cigarettes and tobacco products |
| As you know, Lisa, this is just such an industry problem |
| It has resulted in an unfavorable shift in both utilization and drug mix, and unplanned increase in medical loss ratio |
| As a result, we are lowering our capital expenditure spend guidance to $175 million |
| While we feel good about pharmacy, the front-end was more challenging |
| And Elixir Insurance is experiencing a higher than expected medical loss ratio as adverse selection during annual enrollment is driving unfavorable changes in utilization and drug mix |
| Revenues decreased as we are cycling through our previously announced membership losses |
| As Busy described earlier, we are taking steps to address our challenges in retail sales, but also expect some continued pressure through the rest of the year |
| Now in light of this recent performance, as well as unfavorable regulatory changes on the horizon, we have made the decision to exit the individual Part D market beginning in January 2024 |
| Certainly, as we looked out through the categories, the issues in consumables and some of the private label work that we're doing is more of the company-specific issue |
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