Sales and profits at Ingles Markets during the fiscal second quarter “rebounded nicely” from a slow start to the year, officials of the retailer said.
For the three-month period ended March 29, Ingles net income increased by 29.2% to $10.5 million on $947.8 million in sales, a 2.9% increase. Same-store sales, when adjusted for the timing of the Easter holiday, improved by 2.5%, Ron Freeman, CFO of the Asheville, N.C.-based retailer said.
In a conference call discussing results, Freeman said Ingles gained some sales benefit as a result of harsh winter weather. He also said holding the line on prices despite increasing costs in the meat department helped to win sales there — but cautioned that he wasn’t certain how long Ingles could do that, or whether prices would continue to rise.
“We are absolutely committed to passing along the best prices that we possibly can to our customers, and we definitely demonstrated that by taking a little bit of reduced margins in those [meat] price increases so far,” Freeman said. “But it would be reckless of me to predict how we’ll behave with that if this [inflation] continues for another six, nine or 12 months.”
Profits and sales at Ingles were down in the first quarter.
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