Walgreens is set to close over 1,200 stores as its parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance, seeks to improve performance amid declining prescription reimbursements and rising retail competition. During the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, Walgreens Boots executives announced plans to accelerate store closures and are considering shutting down an additional 800 locations.

Although Walgreens did not specify which stores will be closed, executive VP and CFO Manmohan Mahajan said the company will focus on cashflow-negative and underperforming locations, particularly where leases are set to expire in the next few years. He added that the closures, along with the sale of company-owned stores, are expected to generate $100 million in adjusted operating income.

"We have 8,000 stores (in the U.S.), of which approximately 6,000 are profitable," Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Tim Wentworth said during the call. "While the decision to close a store is never easy, we are confident in our ability to continue serving our customers. We plan to follow our historic practice of redeploying the majority of the workforce from the stores we close."