EXCLUSIVE: Walgreens Cuts Internal Media-Buying Team Amid Strategic Shift

Walgreens laid off its media-buying team in July, ADWEEK has learned. The cuts amount to about 15 positions, according to one source with direct knowledge.

The changes come as Walgreens refocuses on its core retail and pharmacy operations. In its Q3 earnings, Walgreens reported a $175 million loss, though sales rose 7% to $39 billion. Private equity firm Sycamore Partners finalized its $10 billion all-cash acquisition of Walgreens on Thursday.

A spokesperson for Walgreens acknowledged the job cuts but declined to say how many people were laid off. The spokesperson said the cuts are not related to the Sycamore acquisition.

“We recently restructured our media team to drive greater efficiency and accountability,” the Walgreens spokesperson said in a statement to ADWEEK. “As part of this shift, we made the difficult decision to transition a small number of paid media responsibilities to an agency partner.”

Walgreens also named retail veteran Mike Motz, former Staples CEO, as its chief executive on Thursday, replacing Tim Wentworth, who led the company for the past two years. Sycamore acquired Staples in 2017 for $6.9 billion.

The management shake-up comes as Walgreens has struggled to expand into broader healthcare services beyond its pharmacy operation. Efforts to diversify—including an in-store clinic rollout—failed to gain traction, prompting store closures to cut debt and losses.

Walgreens reportedly invested more than $6 billion under former CEO Roz Brewer to take a controlling stake in VillageMD, a physician-staffed clinic operator, with plans to open about 700 “Village Medical at Walgreens” clinics across more than 30 U.S. markets between 2020 and 2025. But the rollout has slowed dramatically since, in part because clinics struggled to fill patient panels. Meanwhile, the investment contributed to more than $8 billion in net losses for fiscal 2024, according to Walgreens.