WOONSOCKET – CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) today announced plans to expand its corporate headquarters in northern Rhode Island by constructing two 150,000-square-foot office buildings at Highland Corporate Park.
The expansion will create more than 200 new jobs “over the next two to three years,” said Mike DeAngelis, spokesman for CVS Caremark – already the largest public company in the state, with 5,800 employees in Rhode Island.
He declined to elaborate on the nature of those jobs, except to say the new positions will “support our pharmacy operations.” The company this month announced plans to merge its e-prescription network with those of two other pharmacy-benefits companies and a group of drugstore chains. (READ MORE)
DeAngelis also declined to reveal the anticipated cost of the new construction. “We are not disclosing that,” he said.
The new structures will be office buildings that will allow the company to “expand some of our departments” and strengthen services to CVS stores, DeAngelis said. He declined to say which departments would be expanded.
Since 1982, CVS Caremark has been headquartered in the Highland Corporate Park, on the Cumberland-Woonsocket line, where it expanded its customer-support center facilities in 1988 and again in 2000. The new buildings will be on the Cumberland side of the park.
“Our company was founded in Rhode Island more than 40 years ago, and we feel fortunate to be able to continually reinvest in our home state,” Thomas M. Ryan, CVS Caremark’s chairman, president and CEO, said in a prepared statement today. “We are looking to further expand our base of operations to support our continued growth and, as a result, increase our work force over the next few years.”
Ryan thanked Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, the R.I. Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC), the Economic Development Foundation of Rhode Island, the Town of Cumberland and Cumberland Mayor Daniel J. McKee for their support. “The spirit of teamwork and cooperation, as well as a shared commitment to growth, offered us the chance to further invest in our business, our state and our people,” he said.
“CVS Caremark is an important player in our effort to create a high-wage innovation economy that produces good jobs for Rhode Islanders,” said Saul Kaplan, executive director of the RIEDC. “CVS Caremark consistently demonstrates its ability to innovate, move into new markets and create jobs.”
In the first quarter of 2008, CVS Caremark posted a record $736.5 million profit, an 83.8-percent increase from the year-ago period. (READ MORE)
During the quarter, the company opened 44 new pharmacies, including mail-order sites. CVS currently has 6,349 pharmacies in 44 states and the District of Columbia, making it the largest provider of prescriptions in the United States. The company is No. 24 on the Fortune 500 list.
The R.I. Economic Development Corporation is a quasi-public agency established to promote business development, preservation and expansion in the state and undertake port projects in Rhode Island. Additional information, including the RIEDC’s 2008 Growth Plan, is available at www.riedc.com.
CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) – formed by the March 2007 merger of CVS Corp. and Caremark Rx – includes CVS/pharmacy stores; the CVS.com online pharmacy; pharmacy benefit manager and mail-order and specialty pharmacy Caremark Pharmacy Services; and retail-based health care provider MinuteClinic. For more information, visit investor.cvs.com or www.cvscaremark.com.
