Walgreen Co. announced yesterday that it will cut 1,000 salaried positions during 2009 as part of its 'Rewiring for Growth' cost-cutting plan, which seeks to eliminate $1 billion in annual costs by 2011. The cuts will come in the corporate and field-managment sectors, and about half of them at Walgreen headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois. Laid-off employees will constitute about 9% of current employees and field managers. In-store employees (those who work the cashiers, etc. at Walgreen's locations) will not be at risk. The company plans to begin the program with a voluntary departure time, and then progress to an involuntary separation program in February. The Rewiring for Growth plan is expected to incur $300 million in costs in 2009.
See "Walgreen's plans to cut 1,000 salaried jobs", James P. Miller, Chicago Tribune, January 8, 2009