Sprouts Farmers Market Reports Q3 Sales Data as Strategies Strengthen

Sprouts Farmers Market has released another successful financial report as it ended its 13-week third quarter, showing a massive 15 percent increase in sales over last year. With net sales topping out at $1 billion, CEO Amin Maredia attributes the success with an increase in focus on fresh offerings, as well as an expansion in the number of store locations.

“The Sprouts team delivered 15 percent sales growth, strong new store performance, and our 38th consecutive quarter of positive same store sales, all despite a highly deflationary and competitive environment,” explained Maredia. “The core fundamentals of our business remain strong, and we continue to prioritize product innovation, investing in our team members and infrastructure for scale, and enhancing the customer experience both in and out-of-store.” 

In a call with investors, Maredia cited that fresh sales are nearly 60 percent of the company’s business, and is on-trend, drives frequency, and adds strength to Sprout’s business model as a whole. Just this year, the company has implemented fresh food and deli expansions in 73 new and existing stores, with a few more on the horizon to go during the balance of the year. This expansion includes a freshly prepared protein and sides full-service case, a salad bar, fresh juices, and a soup station.

“I recently reviewed the plans for 2017 and I'm excited about adding our food and deli initiative to more existing and new stores and also leveraging this platform to enhance our fresh offering even further,” Maredia told investors in a conference call. “Our vendor partners have enabled us to build and broaden our partnerships and also launch new unique and exciting products and programs like a Hatch Chili program released earlier this summer, and new holiday items like chipotle cranberry salsa and dark chocolate drizzled kettle corn.”

In addition to highlighting the company’s forays into fresh, third quarter highlights from the company report include: 

• Comparable store sales growth of 1.3 percent and two-year comparable store sales growth of 7.5 percent
• Net income of $24 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.16
• Net income decreased $8 million from the same period in 2015, and $9 million from adjusted net income
• Diluted earnings per share decreased $0.05 from diluted and adjusted diluted earnings per share in the same period in 2015
• Raising the bottom of full-year comparable store sales growth from 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent 

Sprouts has added ten new stores in its third quarter, with an additional three scheduled in the fourth quarter. Maredia confirmed that the company remains on track for a total count of 253 stores by year end, and is still set to enter new states Florida and North Carolina in 2017.