WOONSOCKET – David B. Rickard, who as executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer of CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) since 1999 has helped to oversee the company’s growth into the nation’s largest drugstore chain, with nearly 7,000 stores, says he plans to retire by year’s end.

His announcement came during yesterday’s hour-long fourth-quarter conference call, an audio recording of which will remain available at CVSCaremark.com/investors through March 19. (A transcript also is available, at SeekingAlpha.com).

“Over the last few months Dave and I have some heart-to-heart discussions about his retirement,” CVS Chairman, President and CEO Thomas M. Ryan said during the call.

“I know it’s hard to believe, he looks so young,” he said of the 62-year-old Rickard. “But Dave is in perfect health and the company is in perfect health” – – having just posted record sales and profit for both fiscal 2008 and the fourth quarter (READ MORE) – “and that’s why he feels it’s really time. So we’ve agreed that Dave will retire at the end of this year, making his tenure at the company at just about 10 years.”

Rickard – after presenting his financial summary and projections, saying that “our balance sheet is in very good shape,” and predicting CVS will make “good progress versus last year” in all but the first quarter of 2009, “with the fourth quarter being probably the strongest” – offered “just a word or two on my decision to retire at some point during this year.

“A few years ago, I thought I’d stay until late 2010,” he said, “but I’ve decided that I want to move my retirement up a bit.

“I’ve reached a point in my life where I’ve accomplished everything I want to from a career and financial perspective. Now, I have some personal goals I’d like to tackle, and I want to get on with them while I still have plenty of energy.

“I feel comfortable with my decision because the company is in a very strong financial position and is well-positioned for long-term growth. We’ve melded CVS and Caremark into a unique company that has significant competitive advantages and I’m confident that this will play out well in the company’s future financial performance. We’ve got the strongest depth of management in the company’s history to see that through.

“I remain passionately committed to the growth and success of CVS Caremark,” Rickard added, “and I will do whatever is necessary to promote that success including ensuring whatever transition process is helpful to the new CFO.”

Rickard joined the company in September 1999. During his tenure, CVS not only has experienced substantial organic growth but also has made several key acquisitions:

• Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Longs Drug Stores Corp. chain and its RxAmerica LLC pharmacy-benefits management (PBM) division, in a stock-swap deal that closed in October (READ MORE);

• Nashville-based PBM giant Caremark Rx Inc., whose “merger of equals” with CVS was completed in March 2007 (READ MORE);

• The Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic retail-based health care chain, which CVS acquired in 2006 (READ MORE);

• And a portion of the former Eckerd pharmacy chain – including about 1,260 stores and the Eckerd Health Services mail-order and PBM division – which CVS purchased from JC Penney Inc. in August 2004. (READ MORE) (The rest of the Florida-based chain was acquired by Canada’s Jean Coutu Group Inc., which later sold its Brooks Eckerd Pharmacies division to Rite Aid Corp. in 2007.)

By the end of last year, CVS Caremark had grown to include 6,923 CVS/pharmacy and Longs Drugs retail stores, 58 specialty pharmacy stores, 19 specialty mail order pharmacies and seven mail order pharmacies in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. And more than 500 of its retail pharmacies also included in-store MinuteClinic walk-in health care centers.

The company “will be launching an internal and external search to fill this key role,” Ryan said. “Dave has been a great CFO and a better partner with me for the past nine years, and his shoes will certainly be hard to fill. But we have some terrific internal candidates that have worked side by side with Dave, and we will also take time to canvass the external environment before making this important decision.

“Dave is not in a rush, but he does have some personal goals he’d like to accomplish, and I certainly respect his decision to start making plans for the next phase of his life.”

CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) – the nation’s largest provider of prescription medications – operates the CVS/pharmacy and Longs Drug Stores; the CVS.com online pharmacy; Caremark Pharmacy Services; and the MinuteClinic retail-based health care subsidiary. Additional information is available at investor.cvs.com.