US retailer Family Dollar Stores has booked an increase in full-year earnings as the group continued its store openings and benefited from increased customer traffic.
Net profit in the 12 months ended 25 August amounted to US$422.2m, an 8.7% increase on the prior year.
Operating profit in fiscal 2012 grew 7.8% to $688.1m. As a percentage of net sales, operating profit was 7.4% in fiscal 2012 as compared to 7.5% in fiscal 2011, the retailer said.
Net sales climbed 9.2% in the period to $9.33bn, while comparable store sales increased 4.7%. The figure was boosted by increased customer traffic and an increase in the average customer transaction value.
Family Dollar made 475 new store openings during the year, compared to 300 last year.
"Fiscal 2012 was a year of great progress for Family Dollar," said CEO Howard Levine. "We expanded our merchandise assortment to increase our relevancy to our customers; we continued to improve the shoppability of our stores; and we repositioned our leadership team to better support our growth. As a result of these efforts, we delivered another strong year for our shareholders."
The retailer is targeting fiscal 2013 full-year EPS of between $4.10 and $4.40, compared with $3.58 in fiscal 2012.
