Burlington Stores to open 100 net new stores in 2025; Q3 sales rise 11%
Burlington Stores reported a solid third quarter even as warmer weather took a toll on cold weather categories, including coat sales.
In its earnings call with analysts, the off-price retailer credited its new store opening program as a major driver of its growth. Burlington expects to end this year with 101 net new stores.
“We are very well positioned to open 100 net new stores in 2025 as well as meet, or even exceed, our 500 net new store opening goals for the period 2024 through 2028,” CEO Michael O’Sullivan told analysts. "We continue to be very pleased with the performance of our new stores, and we are excited by the strength of our new store pipeline.”
Almost all of the stores that Burlington opened this year feature its 25,000-sq.-ft. prototype, he added, with most in busy strip malls with national co-tenants.
“In the past couple of years, we have been able to supplement our new store pipeline by selectively acquiring existing leases from retailers that are going through a bankruptcy process,” O’Sullivan said on the call. “This approach has allowed us to move into centers that we might not have otherwise been able to access.”
[READ MORE: Survey: Retailers report strong economic health]
Burlington’s net income rose to $90.6 million, or $1.40 a share, for the quarter ended Nov. 2, from $48.6 million, or $0.75 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted earnings came in at $1.55 per share, in line with estimates.
Revenue rose 11% to $2.53 billion from $2.29 billion, missing estimates of $2.55 billion. Comparable sales inched up 1%. The company said that its third-quarter comp trend started out very strongly, but then warmer temperatures from mid-September onwards slowed its sales momentum.
“Cold weather categories represent about 15% of sales in the third quarter,” stated Sullivan in the earnings release. “Excluding these categories, our comp growth in the third quarter was 4%, which is consistent with the trend that we have seen in our business since March. We are very encouraged by this underlying comp sales trend.”
Sullivan added that November is off to a good start and the company is optimistic about its prospects for the fourth quarter.
"I was very pleased with how well our teams reacted to the change in weather,” he said. “We proactively controlled liquidity and receipts, especially of cold weather merchandise, and drove strong margin improvement and earnings growth in the third quarter. The agility with which we operated during the quarter has left us in a strong inventory position, which has us well poised for the holiday season.”
The company operated 1,103 stores as of the end of the third quarter in 46 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, principally under the name Burlington Stores.
