Tractor Supply 3Q Sales Up

Brentwood, Tenn., Tractor Supply announced that net sales for its third quarter ended Sept. 29 increased 12.5% to $629.2 million from $559.2 million in the prior year’s third quarter. Net income for the quarter was $17.5 million compared to $18.1 million in the prior year.

The company reported that same-store sales increased 1.9%. According to the company, same-store sales growth was driven by the animal-health and pet-supplies categories, which was offset by weakness in the seasonal and hardware-and-tools categories.

“Despite challenges presented by drought conditions and consumer pressures impacting discretionary purchases, we achieved positive comparable-sales growth as well as slight gross margin improvement,” said Jim Wright, president and CEO, in a statement. “While we were disappointed with the performance of certain seasonal merchandise categories, we are pleased that the company’s continued solid sales growth in core lifestyle categories, such as animal health and pet supplies, contributed to comp-store transaction count growth during the quarter.”