CVS Caremark Corp., which owns more than 40 Longs Drug Stores in Hawaii, said it plans to purchase about 200 independent pharmacies a year nationwide to increase market share.

Those outlets would be folded into CVS's existing store base rather than operated separately, Chief Executive Officer Tom Ryan said today at a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. investor conference in New York.

CVS, the second-biggest U.S. drugstore chain, has expanded through acquisition since at least 1993, including the 2008 purchase of Longs Drug Stores Corp., which added 521 outlets. CVS converted all the Longs stores to the CVS brand except for those in Hawaii, which retained the Longs name.