Dollar General Advances Comps In Q3, Promotes Garratt To CFO

For the third quarter ended October 30, Dollar General Corp. posted net income of $253 million, or 86 cents per diluted share, versus $236 million, or 78 cents per diluted share, in the 2014 period. At the same time, the company also promoted John Garratt to evp and CFO.

Garratt has served as Dollar General’s interim CFO since June 2015, and previously serving as its svp/finance and strategy. Additionally, Anita Elliott, svp/controller at Dollar General since 2005, has been appointed chief accounting officer.

Dollar General's adjusted net income increased approximately 7.6% to $257 million in the quarter year over year, the company noted, as adjusted earnings per diluted share increased to 88 cents versus 79 cents in the 2014 period.

Although sales came in short of Wall Street expectations, earnings per diluted share beat a Thomson Reuters average analyst estimate by a penny.

Comparable store sales advanced 2.3% versus last year's third quarter, with both customer traffic and average transaction value increasing, Dollar General reported. Third quarter net sales increased 7.3% to $5.07 billion compared to last year's period. Net sales increase not attributable to comps derived from new stores, partially offset by sales from closed stores, the company said.

All merchandise categories delivered positive comp growth, noted the retailer, with consumables gaining at a higher rate than non-consumables in the 2015 third quarter. The most significant comp growth within the non-consumables assortments was in sundries, housewares and hardware, with ladies clothing exhibiting better than average growth as well.

“Our initiatives are showing success relative to our long-term goals as we continued to deliver profitable sales growth coupled with disciplined cost management,” said Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s CEO. "We achieved 7.3% sales growth, 2.3% same-store sales growth and adjusted diluted earnings per share growth of 11%. As we plan for 2016, we are adopting a zero-based budgeting process to reinforce our commitment as a low cost operator to better serve our consumers with the everyday low prices they know and trust at Dollar General."

Dollar General operates 12,396 stores in 43 states.