Sprouts Farmers Market plots at least 6 new Philadelphia-area stores

Sprouts Farmers Market is planning to open at least a half dozen new stores in the Philadelphia area in the next two years as it works toward achieving its goal of 10% annual unit growth.

The expansion news was first reported this week by the Philadelphia Business Journal and was confirmed in an email from a Sprouts’ spokesperson to WGB late Tuesday.

The grocer, which sells organic and natural foods, said it intends to open three stores in Philadelphia (Roosevelt Mall, Quartermaster and Festival Pier at Columbus Blvd. and Spring Garden St.); one in York at Pennsylvania Ave. and Route 30 West; and one store in Limerick at Ridge Pike and Township Line Road. At least one additional store is planned in the area, but Sprouts declined to provide location information.

Sprouts also did not respond to a request for information on confirmed store sites outside of Pennsylvania.

Phoenix-based Sprouts opened its first store in Pennsylvania in September 2018, on Broad Street in Philadelphia. It currently has just two locations in the state.

In 2018, the food retailer operated about 300 stores in 19 states. Sprouts recently opened its 400th store and currently operates in 23 states.

The grocer has previously said it is on track to open 30 new grocery stores this year and that it has nearly 100 approved new stores and more than 60 executed leases in its pipeline.

“When we entered this area, the company was amazed at the activation,” Dan Croce, Sprouts’ SVP of real estate and new store development, told the Philadelphia Business Journal. “Our transactions in our stores are very good. I’m very pleased with it. The fact we’ve been here for five years and we’re going to parachute another seven or eight stores here over the next couple years, I think it echoes how we feel about it.”

For the second quarter ended July 2, Sprouts reported same-store sales growth of 3.2% and a net sales increase of 6%, to $1.7 billion.

Sprouts said its differentiated assortment and growing omnichannel offering are driving traffic and that it still sees plenty of opportunity to claim more of its core shoppers’ grocery dollars.

“That’s why the opportunity is so big in front of us,” CEO Jack Sinclair told analysts in August. “We don’t need much of a growth to make the numbers really add up over the next few years … We’ve got a low share of our customers’ wallet, which is the nature of our assortment. We’ve said all along that we’re not going to try and win on conventional products with conventional grocers. We’re going to win on the differentiated assortment that we have.”

Sprouts is scheduled to report its next quarterly earnings on Oct. 31.