Growth of company reflects Ryan's strong career

Drug Store News,  Oct 10, 2005  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

In the summer of 1975, a young pharmacy grad from the University of Rhode Island put on what was then the only tie in his closet, jumped into his car and made the 45-mile drive to CVS store No. 590 in Woonsocket, R.I. Today, it is still the only company Tom Ryan has ever worked for.

And that is pretty rare in an industry that has been touched as much or as often by the hand of consolidation as the retail pharmacy business has during those years.

But then again, so, too, is Ryan a rare individual.

This summer marked Ryan's 30th anniversary with CVS--30 years that include quite arguably the most formative in the 42-year history of the company.

CVS had just 230 stores the day that Ryan began his career. Today, it is the No. 1 chain in the industry by store count, No. 2 in sales; it will finish the year with roughly 5,500 stores and sales of about $37 billion.

And there is no disguising that Ryan's career growth has mirrored the growth of CVS.

Ryan moved quickly from rank-and-file pharmacist to pharmacy supervisor, into CVS' field organization and, by is 10th anniversary with the chain, was named an executive with the company.

And certainly, CVS' evolution under his leadership is unmistakable.

In 1975, only about 20 percent of CVS' stores had a pharmacy counter. By 1984, the year Ryan was named vice president of pharmacy, CVS operated about 600 stores--two-thirds of them with pharmacy departments.

In 1990, the year CVS acquired Peoples Drug, Ryan became executive vice president of stores.

By 1994, Ryan was named president and chief operating officer. Two years later, Melville was restructured, and CVS was spun off as a stand-alone company. Within a year, the former crown jewel of the Melville Dynasty became an empire unto itself, picking up 2,700 former Revco stores.

In 1998, CVS added 200 Arbor stores--the same year Ryan was named chief executive officer. And by 1999, he took up the chairman's gavel from his long-time mentor, CVS co-founder Stanley Goldstein.

Today, CVS is bigger and stronger than the Goldstein brothers, Stanley and Sidney, and their partner Ralph Hoagland ever could have imagined when they opened that first Convenience Value Store in Lowell, Mass., in May 1963.

This past year, under Ryan s leadership, CVS regained the top spot in the industry, adding Eckerd s Southern operations, primarily located in Florida and Texas--roughly 1,200 stores and $7.2 billion in sales. The deal also gave CVS the No. 4 PBM in PharmaCare--another important achievement under Ryan's leadership.

Under Ryan's watch, CVS has been built to compete with the best for managed care contracts and market share both in pharmacy and in the front end of the store. The company has emerged as one of the most efficient operators in the business, and Ryan has emerged as one of the most prolific leaders in the industry.

Ryan celebrated 30 years at CVS this summer. That is a pretty unique accomplishment in any industry, much less retail pharmacy. But then again, Ryan is a pretty unique individual, and CVS is a unique company--and clearly, a great place for a great career.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning