News

Cary, N.C. – The Pantry Inc. is heading into its pending merger with Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. in a profitable state. During the first quarter of fiscal 2015, The Pantry reported net income of $18.9 million, compared to a net loss of $5.1 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Clearwater, Fla. – Cost of sales did not grow in pace with revenue growth during the first quarter of fiscal 2015 at MarineMax Inc., resulting in a higher gross profit that helped produce net income of $214,000. This compares to net loss of $3.36 million the same period a year earlier.

Brentwood, Tenn. – Tractor Supply Company Inc. announced strong results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, including a 17% year increase in net income. The retailer also said it will open 110 to 115 stores and build a new Southwest distribution center, in Casa Grande, Arizona, in fiscal 2015.

Tractor Supply’s net income rose to $112.1 million in the fourth, up from $95.9 million in the year ago period, fueled by the leveraging of store operating costs and reduced year-over-year incentive compensation expense.

Franklin, Tenn. – About four- in-10 retailers plans on using both Apple Pay (43%) and predictive analytics (42%) by the end of 2015. According to a new study from IHL Group, “Retail 2018 – Retail Transformed,” things are looking up for both store growth and IT spend.

Matthews, N.C. – Howard Levine, CEO of Family Dollar Stores Inc., reportedly plans to sell between one and two million shares of company stock in the next 10 days. According to the Charlotte Business Journal, Levine filed his intention to make the sale with SEC.

Camp Hill, Pa. – Same-store sales rose 4.8% in January 2015 compared to the same month a year earlier at Rite Aid Corp. Front-end same store sales increased 2.9% while same store pharmacy sales, which included negative impact from new generic introductions, increased 5.7%.

Total drugstore sales increased 4.3% to $2.03 billion compared to $1.943billion for the same period the prior year. Prescription sales accounted for 70.3% of drugstore sales.
 

San Luis Obispo – In what could be a preview of Sunday’s Super Bowl performance, Patriots fans have been outselling Seahawks fans overall in the month of January by 258%. According to data from Shopatron, although in total Patriots fans have spent more, individually their Seahawks counterparts have been more zealous, spending an average of 15% more than Patriots fans on each individual order.

Dayton, Ohio – Personalization has become something of a “family value” for marketers. According to the Teradata 2015 Global Data-Driven Marketing Survey, 90 % of marketers say making marketing individualized is a priority.  

They want to move beyond segmentation to true one-to-one personalization in a real-time context. Faster, more accurate decisions are key benefits of using data for nearly two-thirds of respondents.

Other findings include:

San Francisco – Sabrina Simmons has been elected to the board of directors of Williams-Sonoma Inc. Simmons has served as executive VP, CFO of Gap Inc. since January 2008.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Kohl’s Department Stores will be the exclusive department store retail partner for The Color Run, a national paint race event series. Select Kohl’s stores will serve as the packet pick-up location in more than 100 cities across the county.

Kohl’s will have a social presence at each race and will encourage participants to take and share celebratory photos with their friends and family across social accounts using #MakeYourMove.