Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

John Driscoll: I think that’s the right way to look at it. I think, Eric, you should expect that we will, you know, we laid out that Q4 target of a 70% improvement over Q3 we’re not prepared right now to give extensive ‘24 guidance. And I think we’d probably be a low to give sub-segment, segment guidance, because I think that would even be more confusing. But we are seeing, as I said, the revenue ramp and the demand in each of our markets for each of our companies. And we have taken and are taking swift action to unlock the embedded profitability. And a lot of that is a line of sight. So on cost synergies, integration opportunities with solid demand. So I think you’ll — we’ll be comfortable giving you more guidance, I think, in Q4. But we see incremental improvement month-over-month and in each of these categories towards those targets.

James Kehoe: Yes. And just to reemphasize that, Eric, I think when John says 70%, that means you take the EBITDA loss in Q3, multiply it by 30%, and that’s we will deliver. So we’re getting very close to EBITDA breakeven in the fourth quarter, and we have decent line of sight to positive EBITDA for the segment in the first-half of next year.

Operator: And we have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Roz Brewer for some final closing remarks.

Roz Brewer: Listen, thank you for your questions this morning on the next phase of our healthcare transformation, the evolution of our pharmacy retail business, and also our capital allocation priorities. You know, I hope you heard from us, we have a strong commitment to move swiftly to address our challenges head on and better executing on our priorities and moving at a faster pace to deliver the value to our employees, our shareholders, and our local communities, that’s important to us. The next phase of our healthcare transformation requires aggressive actions, and these actions are already in motion and they’re focused on improving our profitability against our quality assets. And I want to reinforce that, that we’re really committed.

We feel good and strong about our investments we’ve made so far. So we’re focused on turning the inherent growth of our assets into profitable growth, where we have embedded profitability in our portfolio already. So we have the scale and the skills, and the next phase for us is to operate with urgency [Technical Difficulty] right plans and drive the growth ahead. So thank you for your time today.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.