Walgreens Brings Together Its Top Suppliers for a Fresh Approach to Connecting with Minority and Women-Owned Businesses

Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (NASDAQ: WAG) and some of its largest pharmaceutical suppliers today will host a unique business development event designed to leverage each company’s relationships with minority- and women-owned businesses. The suppliers - including Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Watson Pharmaceuticals - along with Walgreens have invited their best-in-class minority business partners to the “Power of Alignment” Expo at Chicago’s Navy Pier. This unprecedented collaboration is an effort to connect each company with potential vendors recommended by their peers.

The 118 diverse businesses selected to attend the event span the professional services, trucking and transportation, distribution and warehousing, construction, and printing or advertising industries. Each business has delivered high quality services to a sponsoring company, earning a recommendation that could now open exciting new doors.

“We are proud to have gathered such a tremendous group of industry leaders,” said Walgreens director of supplier diversity Gleatha Glispie. “Every sponsor for this event shares a commitment to supporting the economic development of the diverse communities in which we live, work and serve customers and patients everyday. Today’s event is the difference between talking about supplier diversity and actually doing something about it. I congratulate our partners for taking this inspiring step forward.”

For many large companies, identifying diverse vendors that have the scale and proven capabilities to meet their needs is often challenging. Walgreens believes that through this strategic alliance each partner will have the opportunity to strengthen its supplier portfolio with some of the nation’s best diverse vendors.

The day-long expo includes a presentation from Walgreens senior vice president of pharmacy Kermit Crawford and a panel discussion with the purchasing leadership from four sponsoring companies. Participating businesses will have the opportunity to network and share best practices. Division leaders from each sponsoring company will spend the majority of the day meeting with dozens of potential vendors. A total of more than 270 20-minute appointments have been booked.

“What sets this diversity business development model apart from any other is the incredible power of cross networking,” said Glispie. “Every diverse business here has the capacity to truly deliver on the opportunities we’ve brought to the table. Our measure of success for this event is to have each sponsor award new contracts to a participating business this year. We are honored to lead such a solid commitment toward advancing economic development in our communities.”

Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2008 sales of $59 billion. The company operates 6,783 drugstores in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens provides the most convenient access to consumer goods and services and cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services in America through its retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Services division and Walgreens Health and Wellness division. Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). Walgreens Health and Wellness division includes Take Care Health Systems, the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.