SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Village Super Markets said Friday that profitability improved in the fourth quarter after one-time items, despite flat same-store sales.
The 26-unit ShopRite operator posted $8.9 million in net income for the 14-week quarter, which ended July 31, a 33% increase over-year-ago levels. Excluding $1.2 million positive impact from an extra week in the 2010 quarter and a $708,000 after-tax charge related to litigation in the year-ago period, net income was up 4%.
Sales for the quarter rose 10.2%, to $342.7 million, which the company attributed in part to the extra week.
Village cited cannibalization from a new store and reduced sales in two stores due to competitive openings in reporting flat comps for the quarter.
“In addition, sales continue to be impacted by changing consumer behavior due to economic weakness, which has resulted in increased coupon usage, sale item penetration and trading down,” the company said.
For the fiscal year, which also had an extra week, Village said net income was down 7%, to $25.4 million, on a 4.4% increase in sales, to $1.26 billion. Same-store sales were down 0.7% for the year.
Citing expectations of reduced deflation, Village projected same-store sales for fiscal 2011 to rise between 0% and 2%.