Vitamin Shoppe reports flat Q3 net income; 60 stores on tap for 2014

North Bergen, N.J. – Vitamin Shoppe reported net income of $16.3 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2013, flat with the same quarter in the prior year. The retailer also reported a 14% increase in total net sales, to $272.5 million from $239 million, as well as a 2.6% jump in same-store sales.



Integration costs from the company’s acquisition of the Super Supplements chain earlier this year and a 15% increase in cost of goods sold negatively impacted net income totals, while sales increases were driven by higher same-store sales, the addition of $17 million in Super Supplements sales, higher sales in stores open less than a year, and a roughly 18% increase in e-commerce sales.



The company opened 10 stores in the quarter and 33 year-to-date. The majority of the third quarter store openings occurred late in the quarter. Total store count was 640 as of September 28, 2013, compared with 564 on September 29, 2012. For fiscal 2014, Vitamin Shoppe predicts it will open about 60 new stores and have mid-single-digit same-store sales growth.



“We delivered our 32nd consecutive quarter of positive comparable retail store sales growth and experienced improving traffic trends throughout the quarter,” said Tony Truesdale, CEO of Vitamin Shoppe. “We opened a new 311,000-sq.-ft. distribution center in Ashland, Va., and continued to successfully integrate Super Supplements, the largest acquisition in the company's history."