The Canadian arm of U.S.-based pharmaceutical conglomerate McKesson is divesting the retail and online drugstores eight years after buying Rexall and seven years after acquiring Well. Birch Hill intends to open new stores and expand services, it said in a statement. Terms of the sale weren’t disclosed. (The Logic)

Talking point: Rexall is up against the Shoppers Drug Mart-Loblaw leviathan, which has been broadening its offerings aggressively, and Rexall hasn’t been thriving: it had over 9,000 employees when McKesson bought it (for $3 billion) and now claims about 8,000. The chain closed 40 stores in 2018 and has reportedly been on the market for months. McKesson remains a major pharmacy company in Canada—its brands include Uniprix, IDA and The Medicine Shoppe, plus private-label drug brand Sivem—and it will remain Rexall’s wholesale supplier. Birch Hill’s holdings range from CCM hockey equipment to Citron Hygiene cleaning services to the private Yorkville University.