GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Spartan Stores here said the lingering economic downturn kept pressure on sales in both its retail and wholesale divisions in its first fiscal quarter, although it said it expected trends to improve through the rest of the current fiscal year.
“I believe that our consumer value profile is improving with the implementation of our value-based merchandising and marketing campaign that we launched in March,” said Dennis Eidson, president and chief executive officer, in a conference call with analysts on Thursday.
In the first quarter, Spartan said same-store sales in its retail division were down 6.1% compared with the year-ago period, and distribution sales were off as well, leading to an overall sales decline of 3.15%, to $577.2 million. Traffic trends in general have been improving, however, Eidson said in response to an analyst’s question.
Net income for the quarter was down about 12.7%, to just under $6 million, compared with year-ago results.
Excluding one-time charges related to warehouse consolidation and asset impairment, adjusted first-quarter operating earnings were $14.1 million, compared with $15.7 million in the year-ago period. As reported, first-quarter operating earnings were $13.3 million, vs. $15.1 million a year ago.
