Off price is on target at Burlington

Burlington Stores president and CEO Tom Kingsbury has the operator of 523 stores headed in the right direction with an off-price model that is delivering results and poised for expansion.

The company plans to open 25 new stores during the remainder of the year after posting first quarter results that saw sales increase 5.9% to $1.13 billion and gross margins expanded to 38.1% of sales from 37.3% the prior year. The company reported profits adjusted to exclude some non-recurring expenses and benefits of $18.6 million, or 25 cents a share, during the quarter ended May 3, compared to $6.1 million, or eight cents a share the prior year.

“We are extremely pleased with our solid results in the first quarter as we continued to build upon our momentum from 2013 with both strong sales and bottom line performance,” Kingsbury said. “We achieved a comparable store sales increase of 2.7%, on top of a 3.4% increase last year, which we believe is a direct result of the continued improvement in the execution of our off-price model. We remain focused on delivering great value, brands and fresh product to our customers every day as well as executing our growth initiatives to improve comparable store sales, expand our retail store base and enhance our operating margins.”

The company opened two new stores during the quarter to end the period with 523 units. The addition of 25 more stores during the remainder of the year has the company expecting full year sales to increase between 5.8% and 6.8% and same store sales to grow between 2% and 3%.