Cutting the ribbon on the new Walgreens micro-fulfillment center are (from left) Darren Kennedy, Walgreens senior director of micro-fulfillment site operations; Makaila Kelso from ChamberWest; West Jordan Economic Development Manager Paul Coates; West Jordan Mayor Dirk Burton; Josch Bullard, Walgreens fulfillment center site director; ChamberWest President/CEO Barbara Riddle; ChamberWest Past Chair Mace Melon; Idaho Licenses officer Nicole Chopski; and Lorri Walmsley, Walgreens director of pharmacy affairs. (Photo courtesy Walgreens)
Walgreens has opened a new micro-fulfillment center in West Jordan, the 13th regional facility of its kind in the Walgreens family. The 27,000-square-foot facility will support 96 Walgreens stores in the Intermountain region, including 48 in Utah.
Chief Technology Operations Officer John Joplin said the high-tech facility, located at 6306 Airport Road, will allow in-store pharmacists to spend more quality time with patients and bring additional new jobs to the area.
“We’re first and foremost a pharmacy, so it’s clinical,” Joplin said of the new site. “We do use a lot of automation, robotics and innovative technology to fill prescriptions. We’re kind of a back-office support for the stores. We fill prescriptions, which frees up our team members in the stores to help customers with any clinical needs they may have — like immunizations or medical therapy management. They can focus on what’s most important: the patient.”
He said the West Jordan facility is part of a growing network of Walgreens fulfillment centers used to process millions of prescriptions weekly. This center alone is expected to process 4.2 million prescriptions each year.
“Even though this site is one of our smaller ones, as the footprint and the needs grow, we can adjust things and expand,” he said. “Across the network, we fill a little over 200 million prescriptions a year. This site will also fill orders for stores in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and part of Oregon.”
Joplin said these centers help increase both customer satisfaction and team member satisfaction, making the ability to fill prescriptions faster.
Currently there are 50 employees at the new facility, and they may add to the staff.
“Hiring in this area is super-important to us,” Joplin said. “We’re happy to entertain resumes for the fulfillment center. We’re always looking for pharmacists, pharmacy techs, specialists maybe right out of college, technology professionals, maintenance, and those with IT experience.”