IBM To Provide IT Services To Eckerd Drugstores

North America's fourth-largest drugstore chain has tapped IBM for a multimillion-dollar integration project, IBM disclosed Thursday. The Jean Coutu Group of Longueuil, Quebec, will have IBM integrate technology systems for more than 1,500 Eckerd brand drugstores that Jean Coutu Group acquired in April. More specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Eckerd acquisition gave Jean Coutu Group a total of 2,196 stores in North America, mostly in Canada and in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Among other things, IBM says it may work to help Jean Coutu Group implement a transition plan that would see Eckerd stores moving onto the Jean Coutu Group IT network through a conversion of business applications and back-office data centers.

IBM says it may also provide additional, unspecified resources to Jean Coutu Group. The drugstore operator purchased the Eckerd stores from retailer J.C. Penney Co. for about $2.5 billion.