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Family Dollar updates fiscal 2008 earnings guidance

06 Dec '07

2 min read

Family Dollar Stores Inc reported that net sales for the four weeks ended December 1, 2007, were approximately $559.3 million compared with $560.0 million for the comparable four-week period ended December 2, 2006. Comparable store sales for the four-week period decreased 3.4% when compared with sales for the similar four-week period last year. The Company had 6,477 stores as of December 1, 2007, including 22 new stores opened in the November period.

“Macro-economic pressures continue to impact the spending capacity of low and low-middle income consumers. As our customers struggled to make ends meet in the first quarter of fiscal 2008, we saw sales increases in most consumable categories while more discretionary categories were softer,” said Howard R. Levine, Chairman and CEO.

“We currently expect this merchandise mix trend to continue through fiscal 2008 as customers cope with an increasingly challenging macro-economic environment. Consequently, we now expect that comparable store sales will be flat to up slightly in fiscal 2008 and that earnings per diluted share for fiscal 2008 will be between $1.62 and $1.74.”

First Quarter Sales Results and Earnings Guidance:
Sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2008 ended December 1, 2007, were approximately $1,683.0 million, or 5.2% above sales of approximately $1,600.3 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2007 ended November 25, 2006.

Comparable store sales for the first quarter ended December 1, 2007, decreased 1.0% when compared with sales for the comparable period in fiscal 2007. Reflecting these sales results and an adverse merchandise mix, the Company now expects earnings per diluted share for the first quarter of fiscal 2008 to be between $0.36 and $0.38 compared with $0.36 per diluted share in fiscal 2007.

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