Dollar General beats Q1 profits, misses sales; on track to open 730 stores

Goodlettsville, Tenn. – Dollar General Corp. beat Wall Street expectations for profit but missed on sales in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Net income totaled $253 million, up 14% from $222 million the same period the prior year.



Higher initial inventory markups, improved inventory shrink rate and lower transportation costs helped boost net income. Net sales increased 9% to $4.92 billion, compared to $4.52 billion. Same-store sales increased 3.7%, resulting from increases in both customer traffic and average transaction amount.



Dollar General is on track to open approximately 730 new stores in 2015, and relocate or remodel 875 stores. To date, the company is on track with its pipeline development to accelerate new store openings to 7% square footage growth in 2016.



“In the first quarter, we made solid progress implementing our key initiatives with balanced growth across both consumables and non-consumable categories,” said Rick Dreiling, Dollar General’s chairman and CEO. “Looking ahead, we are confirming our full year guidance based on our results for the first quarter.”



For the 2015 fiscal year, Dollar General expects total sales to increase 8% to 9% from the 2014 fiscal year, with same-store sales expected to increase 3% to 3.5%.