Family Dollar

Dollar Tree on Wednesday reported increases in its sales and profit for the fourth quarter, but its results missed Street expectations.

There's been a changing of the guard at Dollar Tree as the man who grew the chain into a $22 billion retail powerhouse moves on to a new role.    The discounter has appointed Gary Philbin, enterprise president, as CEO, effective immediately. He succeeds Bob Sasser, who will become executive chairman of Dollar Tree's board.   

Dollar Tree turned in a strong quarterly performance that blew past profit and sales forecasts as consumers' love affair with dollar stores shows no signs of abating.    Net income rose to $233.8 million, or 98 cents per share, in the second quarter ended July 29, from $170.2 million, or 72 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding items, Dollar Tree earned 99 cents per share, beating the analysts' estimate of 87 cents per share.  

The news that Walgreens is to scrap its $9.4 billion merger with Rite Aid is unsurprising. The glacial pace of the Federal Trade Commission investigation and increasing signals that the federal government would disallow the merger have forced a rethink.  

Dollar Tree's profit declined in the first quarter amid an impairment charge related to its divesture to Dollar Express.   

Dollar General Corp. has added to its portfolio through an acquisition.    The Federal Trade Commission has approved the sale of 323 Dollar Express stores by Sycamore Partners to Dollar General, reported Reuters. The Dollar Express chain is made up of former Family Dollar stores that Family Dollar sold to Sycamore Partners in late 2015. Sycamore Partners bought the stores in 2015 when Dollar Tree sold the stores in order to win antitrust approval to buy the Family Dollar chain.   

Dollar General is set to grow its already considerable footprint through an acquisition.   The discounter will acquire all 323 stores from Dollar Express, according to the Charlotte Observer.    

Higher customer spending and lower costs help drive better-than-expected fourth quarter sales and profit at Dollar Tree.   The discounter’s solid quarterly performance capped a year in which it opened 584 new stores and exceeded $20 billion in sales.    Dollar Tree reported net sales of $5.64 billion for the quarter ended Jan. 28, up 5.0% from $5.37 billion in the year-ago period.  

Lowe's Companies’ chief marketing head Marci Grebstein has left the company after 14 months in the position.   The home improvement giant wasted no time in naming a successor, tapping Jocelyn Wong as chief marketing officer, effective immediately. Wong joined Lowe's in September 2015, and most recently served as senior VP and general merchandising manager for the seasonal business. Prior to joining Lowe's, she served as senior VP and chief marketing officer at Family Dollar.  

Dollar Tree has appointed Duncan Mac Naughton as president and COO of its Family Dollar subsidiary.   Mac Naughton, 54, most recently served as CEO of Mills Fleet Farm. He has held numerous leadership roles at Wal-Mart Stores, including chief merchandising and marketing officer of Wal-Mart U.S. from 2011 to 2014, executive VP of consumables health and wellness and Walmart.com from 2010 to 2011, and chief merchandising officer of Wal-Mart Canada from 2009 to 2010.