NEW YORK — The planned merger of Rite Aid Corp. and Albertsons Cos. should strengthen both retailers by bringing together several complementary strengths.

First and perhaps most obvious will be the enhanced financial scale of the combined company. With 4,892 stores nationwide, pro forma annual revenue is projected to total around $83 billion for 2018, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) estimated at about $3.4 billion, or 4.1% of revenues. Executives project as well that the merger will produce around $375 million in run-rate cost synergies within three years of the deal’s close.

“We have identified $3.6 billion [of] incremental revenue opportunities for the combined company, which will be delivered by rebranding most existing Albertsons pharmacies as Rite Aid and integrating loyalty programs to drive traffic; leveraging front-end capabilities and pharmacy expertise to enhance the customer offering; broadening the health and wellness value proposition to create best-in-class omnichannel retail experience; and partnering with EnvisionRx and local payors on the West Coast and in other key areas to form preferred networks,” explained Rite Aid chairman and chief executive officer John Standley, who is slated to be CEO of the new company, during a conference call.

The merger will enable the combined company to deepen its penetration of numerous markets, particularly on the West Coast and in the Northeast. In fact, the deal will create the leading integrated food and drug retailer on the West Coast in terms of store count.

It will also provide an opportunity to expand the total pharmacy footprint significantly by creating pharmacies in some of the Albertsons Cos. supermarket banners that currently have few or no pharmacies, such as Shaw’s Supermarkets in New England and Acme Markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic areas.

Even excluding such expansion potential, the merger will greatly increase the reach of the Rite Aid banner, which, as Standley noted, will be applied to all Albertsons Cos. pharmacies except those carrying the Jewel-Osco banner in the Greater Chicago market. With the addition of Albertsons Cos.’ 1,776 in-store pharmacies, which generate 102 million prescriptions annually, Rite Aid will approach the scale it had before selling 2,186 stores to Walgreens Boots Alliance. The new company will field about 4,345 pharmacies producing $16 billion in combined annual pharmacy sales (excluding front-end revenues) and generating a combined script count of about 323 million scripts.

“This new combined pharmacy network will increase choice, convenience and access for both Rite Aid and Albertsons pharmacy customers for the more than 50 million lives in key areas on the West Coast,” said Kermit Crawford, Rite Aid’s president and chief operating officer, during the call. “We will invest to participate in preferred networks as well as expand our Envision Insurance Co.’s Medicare Part D plan on the West Coast. Both of these networks will lower cost for members and drive script growth into our stores.”

Crawford added that integrating current capabilities such as Rite Aid’s RediClinic retail clinics and dietitians in certain Albertsons Cos. supermarkets, and introducing healthy meals to pharmacy customers through Albertsons Cos.’ recently acquired Plated meal kit program can also drive growth and bring greater value to preferred pharmacy networks.

Both Rite Aid and Albertsons Cos. have robust private label portfolios, and the potential to cross-pollinate their brands represents another attractive growth opportunity. Albertsons Cos. boasts four private brands that generate more than $1 billion annually, including O Organics and Signature Cafe, a prepared food line, and derives almost 23% of its revenue from private brands, while Rite Aid generates about 18% of its top line from such private brands as B4Y and Daylogic. Crawford noted that introducing Albertsons Cos.’ own brands in food and consumables can transform Rite Aid’s front-end offerings, while Rite Aid’s own brands can bolster and differentiate Albertsons Cos.’ nonfood assortments. Executives calculate that such cross-merchandising could drive private brands’ share of the combined company’s sales up to 30%, which would boost gross margins as well.

Integrating loyalty programs offers another growth opportunity for the new company. Rite Aid introduced its Wellness+ loyalty program a few years ago and has expanded it by participating in the Plenti coalition loyalty ­program.

Until its acquisition of Safeway Inc., Albertsons Cos. did not offer a loyalty program, but among Safeway’s assets was a powerful rewards program, Just for U. It has not, however, been deployed through all of Albertsons Cos.’ divisions yet, because the company is still rolling out Safeway’s information technology platform throughout the divisions.

Albertsons Cos. has also been steadily developing and expanding an e-commerce platform that encompasses grocery delivery, including same-day delivery through Instacart, and the Plated meal kit service, which will almost certainly find its way into Rite Aid stores. For its part, Rite Aid offers prescription delivery service at 50% of its stores, while more than 1,350 locations have drive-through ­capability.

“We’ve taken a multipronged approach to our online offerings,” said Bob Miller, chairman and CEO of Albertsons Cos., during the conference call. “The results we’re seeing so far suggest that our customers love having so many ways to shop with Albertsons.”