Bollingbrook, Ill. -- Ulta Beauty came out of the gate running in the first quarter, reporting better-than-expected income and revenue amid strong same-store sales and online growth. The retailer plans to expand square footage by approximately 13% in 2015, with the opening of 100 net new stores.
Ulta Beauty said its net income increased to $66.9 million in the quarter, ended May 2, compared to $50.0 million in the year ago period.
Net sales increased 21.6% to $868.1 million, from $713.8 million a year earlier. E-commerce sales grew 49.8% to $44.0 million from $29.4 million in the year-ago period, representing 170 basis points of the total company comparable store sales increase of 11.4%.
Same-store sales (including e-commerce sales) increased 11.4% compared to an increase of 8.7% in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. The increase was driven by 7.2% growth in transactions and 4.2% growth in average ticket.
“The Ulta Beauty team delivered an excellent start to 2015, with better than expected sales and earnings growth in the first quarter,” said Mary Dillon, CEO. “We achieved our best comparable sales growth since 2011, driven by strong traffic growth in both retail and e-commerce, market share gains across all categories, and continued successful execution of our marketing strategies. We also drove significant operating margin expansion, with a healthy balance of product margin improvement and marketing and payroll expense leverage.”