Duane Reade 4Q Sales Up

New York Duane Reade announced Thursday that net retail store sales, which exclude pharmacy resale activity, increased 4.4% to $414.6 million from $397.2 million in the fourth quarter of the year before. Total net sales increased 4.1% to $431.6 million from $414.5 million during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, same-store sales increased by 5.7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2006, including a front-end same-store sales increase of 7.5% and a pharmacy same-store sales increase of 3.3%.

The company's fourth quarter net loss was $15.1 million, compared to a net loss of $29.7 million in the prior year period.

For the full year, total net sales were $1.687 billion, up 6.4%, from $1.585 billion last year. Net retail store sales for the current year increased 6.1% to $1.623 billion from $1.530 billion in the prior year. Total same-store sales increased 7.4% compared to 2006, including a front-end same-store sales increase of 8.6% and a pharmacy same-store sales increase of 5.9%.