Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our virtual investor conference. I'm Jay Spitzer, Vice President of Investor Relations at Walgreens Boots Alliance. Before we start, I'd like to quickly run through the customary, regulatory, and safe harbor statements before I hand it over to Roz. Certain statements and projections of future results made in this presentation constitute as forward-looking statements that are based on our current market, competitive, and regulatory expectations and are subject to the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement after this presentation, whether a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, or otherwise. Please see our latest Forms 10-K and 10-Q for discussion of risk factors as they relate to forward-looking statements. During the course of today's events, in our remarks and in the related presentation, we lose certain non-GAAP financial measures. We refer you to the appendices in the presentation materials available on our Investor Relations website for reconciliations where applicable to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and related information. You will find a link to the webcast on our Investor Relations website at investor.walgreensbootsalliance.com. After the event, the presentation and the webcast will will be archived on the website for 12 months. In addition to our earnings announcement this morning, we will be issuing a form 8K that contains forward-looking guidance and other relevant information provided during today's event. Please be aware that we may during this presentation and in answers to questions make references to the information contained in the form 8K. The form 8K along with the earnings announcement and the presentation materials from this event are available on our website. With that, I'll now hand it over to Roz. Roz?

Thank you, Jay. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. It's really great to be with you. I have to say I'm definitely looking forward to sharing what we have in store for you in the next two and a half hours. As you know, I recently passed my first six months at WBA, and I'm even more excited about this company's potential than when I first joined. I took this job based on some deeply personal reasons. At the time, I was really enjoying selling coffee out in Seattle, so it was a big decision to leave that gig. But honestly, like many of us during the pandemic, I was thinking a lot about how I could contribute even more to the world. So when I was approached about the CEO role at WBA, I thought, here's a chance to join a company right in the center of fighting COVID-19 and bringing hope, and a helping hand to do so in many different communities. I also saw how we can make meaningful progress on addressing some of the social determinants that lead to disparities in health among different racial and socioeconomic groups, resulting in food deserts and care gaps. And frankly, now that I'm at WBA, There's so much more promise ahead than I could have ever anticipated. The pandemic definitely gave WBA a chance to step up like never before. And we've delivered in so many ways. But we're absolutely just getting started in terms of how we can mobilize to solve big, complex problems. And we definitely believe that this momentum will accelerate our path to sustainable, profitable growth moving forward. So during my entire life, I've been an avid learner. Some of you may remember that my undergraduate degree is in chemistry, and I've applied what I've studied then throughout my entire career. That discipline is about hands-on investigation and rigorous research. So it will come as no surprise that since I've been at WBA, I've been taking a deep dive to really understand the business and speaking with our leaders and team members in all corners of the company. as well as many outside experts. I conducted listening sessions and spent time in our stores, vaccine clinics, and back office operations. I've identified many gifts that were waiting for me when I arrived, based on some strong work that had already been done. And I've pinpointed where we've taken some wrong turns and haven't executed as well as we could have. I've also been very glad to see the many new ways we can capitalize on our core strengths. I believe we have some tremendous underlying momentum within this business, and the pandemic has further proven the importance of pharmacies in local communities around the world. I promise to you that after an extensive study, I wouldn't waste any time getting back to you about my assessment and where we're heading next. During this time, we'll clearly articulate the direction of our company, and we'll provide what we hope leaves you feeling a greater sense of understanding in terms of our strategic direction. We'll share our learnings, present our opportunities, and lay out our path forward. So let me start by saying that we just announced positive fourth quarter results this morning. We exceeded expectations across all of our business segments. reflecting strong operational performance and surpassing our vaccination goals. James will be going into much greater detail with you on that soon, including our guidance for this year. So hopefully you see these earnings as an indication, among many others today, of a renewed, revitalized, and re-energized company. Also, I'm very excited to share some important strategic investments later in today's sessions. will tell you more throughout the course of our time together this morning. Today, I'm going to make good on my commitment to you. And we're going to take you on a journey that includes three things. Transparency, accountability, and an extremely well thought out strategy. But let me be clear. This isn't our everyday Walgreens strategy. Instead, it's about acceleration, execution, accountability, and long-term growth. Strategy is also about mobilizing across the organization, uniting behind values-based culture, enabling strong alignment, leveraging momentum, and having clarity on the end game. And it's also not just what you plan to do, but it's also what you plan not to do. We will make trade-offs and eliminate some work to focus on what matters most. And we're going to hit on these same points again and again and again to hammer home just how much we've internalized this into our mindset. So on that note, here's our agenda for today. First, I'll go into detail on our strategic priorities with a particular emphasis on the role we believe we are rightfully positioned to play within the healthcare ecosystem. Our CFO, James Kehoe, and President of Walgreens, John Stanley, will join me during these portions of the meeting. James will discuss the financials, both the numbers reported today and also our immediate and long-term growth model and fiscal year 22 guidance. Finally, we will end with a Q&A session where we will look forward to engaging directly with you on our strategy and performance. And again, We hope this will signal the change to come, more of an ongoing dialogue with our investor community and more visibility into what we're doing and how we're performing against our most important KPIs. So to lead us more into that discussion, I thought I'd share a brief video highlighting who we are.

What is a company's history? It's legacy. For most, it marks where you've been. For Walgreens Boots Alliance, our history is more than that. It's the strength and resilience that allow us to meet any challenge, to be there, to be ready. It's our 170-year history of helping and healing, day in and day out, year after year, that enabled us to be there for our communities during a time like no other. A time that challenged us to do our very best. A time when we needed to step up in even more ways. To reach out and lend a hand. To go beyond. To connect in new ways to tens of millions of customers every single day. And whenever possible, to simply bring a bit of joy into people's lives. Now, as the world begins to turn a corner and turn a page, Walgreens Boots Alliance is ready to deliver more. With the combined talents of all of our team members, we're ready as people around the world reimagine health care. We're ready as people make well-being central to their own lives and their families. We are already there for our customers. Around the clock. Around the corner. around the world. We're ready to bring about health care that means lower costs for our customers, better outcomes, more convenience, equitable access for all. We're ready to lead because we'll never be outpaced or outworked. Because after 170 years, we've learned a thing or two about health care and being there for the communities where we live and serve. Because we've invested in our future and partnered with others who share our values and our commitment to doing what's right. Walgreens Boots Alliance, a health care company from the start. Now we're reimagining health care for our customers for the next era.