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Walgreens expands role of former Duane Reade exec

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Walgreens has named Joe Magnacca president of daily living products and solutions, with responsibility for all merchandising and marketing functions.

Magnacca played a central role in the rejuvenation of Duane Reade and later headed the metropolitan New York drug store chain after its sale to Walgreens last year. In his new assignment at the parent company, he will continue to oversee Duane Reade.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Joe Magnacca, the executive who played a central role in the rejuvenation of Duane Reade and, following its sale to Walgreen Co. in 2010, headed the New York City drug store chain, has taken on a new assignment at the parent company.

Joe Magnacca, the executive who played a central role in the rejuvenation of Duane Reade and, following its sale to Walgreen Co. in 2010, headed the New York City drug store chain, has taken on a new assignment at the parent company.

Walgreens on Friday named Magnacca president of daily living products and solutions, with responsibility for all merchandising and marketing functions and continued oversight of Duane Reade. Walgreens chief merchandising officer Bryan Pugh and chief marketing officer Kim Feil both report to Magnacca.

“Joe’s exceptional strategic market focus, combined with the leadership, experience and expertise that Kim and Bryan have brought to our marketing and merchandising operations means we are now better positioned than ever to meet the daily living needs of our customers,” Walgreens president and chief executive officer Greg Wasson said in a statement. “In addition, the creative innovations and improvements that Joe brought to Duane Reade will now benefit and be extended across our entire organization.”

Since joining Duane Reade as senior vice president and chief merchandising officer in 2008, Magnacca spearheaded the transformation of the shopping experience provided by the chain, overhauling the product mix, store format and marketing. In addition, he was responsible for the creation of a new private label program, parts of which have already been adopted by Walgreens. All of those efforts were geared to the unique needs of the New York market.

Following Walgreens’ acquisition of Duane Reade, which closed last April, Magnacca was named president of the New York drug chain over the summer.

As president of daily living products and solutions at Walgreens, Magnacca now reports directly to Wasson.

“We are bringing together and raising the profile of one of the strongest teams in retail to lead our marketing and merchandising efforts and enhance our daily living products business, much as we have already enhanced our pharmacy, health and wellness services and solutions business,” Wasson noted.

Walgreens’ chief executive officer went on to praise the work of Pugh and Feil.

“Bryan has forged one of the strongest merchandising teams in retail,” he said. “His leadership these past two years has been absolutely critical to the growth and performance of our front-end business through our transformational customer-centric retailing initiative, and it will be even more important in the years ahead as we continue to enhance the customer experience at Walgreens.

“As chief marketing officer for health and daily living solutions, Kim will be responsible for not only all of our consumer marketing activities, including Duane Reade, but also our rapidly expanding business-to-business marketing efforts. Over the past two years, Kim has been integral to our transformation and has created some of the most focused, results-oriented consumer marketing campaigns in our company’s history.”


ECRM_06-01-22


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