CVS buying Schnucks pharmacies

CVS announced Tuesday it is acquiring the Schnucks pharmacy business, including the pharmacy inside the Schnucks store in Cape Girardeau.

According to a joint news release, CVS Pharmacy Inc., a subsidiary of CVS Health Corp., has entered into a “definitive agreement” for CVS to acquire the 110 pharmacies operated by Schnucks throughout the Midwest.

The news release said 99 of the pharmacies will be rebranded as “CVS Pharmacy” while the prescription files from the remaining 11 Schnucks pharmacies will be transferred to nearby CVS pharmacies.

The Cape Girardeau Schnucks market at 19 S. Kingshighway is only a few hundred yards from a CVS Pharmacy at the intersection of Kingshighway and William Street.

Neither CVS nor Schnucks has indicated whether the pharmacy at the Cape Girardeau Schnucks will be closed or rebranded.

“The list of pharmacies that will be converted and the pharmacies that will close will not be considered final until the transaction (between CVS and Schnucks) closes,” Schnucks community relations manager Paul Simon told the Southeast Missourian in a telephone interview from Schnucks’ St. Louis headquarters.

Although Simon said the official list will not be available until April, a document on a Schnucks employee union website related to the CVS acquisition does not include the Cape Girardeau pharmacy among those CVS will close, meaning it is among those that will be rebranded as a CVS pharmacy.

Terms of the pharmacy acquisition were not disclosed.

Five years ago, in 2015, CVS acquired Target’s 1,672 in-store pharmacies and clinics for approximately $1.9 billion and operates them as CVS pharmacies within the Target locations.

Schnucks operates 112 grocery stores in five states — Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa. The Cape Girardeau store is one of 70 in Missouri. The chain has pharmacies in 103 of its stores as well as six “specialty” pharmacies not located in a store and one “stand-alone” pharmacy for a total of 110 pharmacies.

“We have great admiration for Schnucks and believe CVS Pharmacy can bring additional clinical services to its customers,” said Jon Roberts, executive vice president and chief operating officer at CVS Health, in the release.

“By opening CVS Pharmacy locations within Schnucks stores, we’re increasing access to high quality care and meeting customers where they are.”

In 2014, CVS Pharmacy became the first major retail pharmacy to remove tobacco from its shelves. Schnucks became tobacco-free as of Jan. 1, a move CVS and Schnucks say has helped align the two companies.

“As Schnucks continues to expand our emphasis on health and wellness, this collaboration with CVS is an opportunity for us to align with a company that has a similar focus,” said Todd Schnuck, chairman and chief executive officer at Schnucks, in the release. “This partnership allows us to continue to provide quality pharmacy services to our customers in a manner they’ve come to expect, while supporting our mission to nourish people’s lives.”

According to its 2019 rankings, Forbes Magazine ranks Schnucks as the 155th largest privately-owned company in the United States and the nation’s 16th largest privately-owned grocery company.

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