Dollar Tree sees $25.5B in sales

CHESAPEAKE — The pandemic has been good to Dollar Tree’s bottom line.

The Chesapeake-based discount retailer that operates 15,685 Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores, reported $25.5 billion in sales during the 12 months ending Jan. 30, 2021, up 8% from the prior year and the first time it had exceeded $25 billion.

Profit was $1.34 billion, up from $827 million a year prior, and nearly 63% per diluted share to $5.65 — despite $279 million in COVID-19-related costs that company executives attributed primarily to bonuses and incentives offered to workers.

Overall, sales were up at both brands, at nearly $13.3 billion at Dollar Tree and $12.2 billion at Family Dollar. There were 7,805 Dollar Trees and 7,880 Family Dollars at the end of Jan. 30.

Same-store sales jumped 10.5% at Family Dollar and 2.2% at Dollar Tree for the year.

“We didn’t just survive through it, we thrived through it,” CEO and President Michael Witynski told analysts during a conference call to discuss results Wednesday morning. Witynski noted both store brands outdid themselves from the prior year despite Dollar Tree’s holiday decoration-centric business being stymied by stay-at-home orders and fewer in-person celebratory gatherings.

“Dollar Tree feeds those celebrations,” he said. “It just didn’t happen because of COVID.”

In just the last quarter, the 13 weeks ending Jan. 30, 2021, the Chesapeake company’s profit was $502.8 million, up from $123 million the year prior, or $2.13 per diluted share, up 310%.

The company also revealed Wednesday that it has been quietly introducing a combination Family Dollar/ Dollar Tree store concept. It opened the first one in late 2019 and was operating nearly 50 locations by the end of 2020, focusing on small towns with populations of a few thousand people.

The company has experimented before with having Dollar Tree sections inside existing Family Dollar stores, or adding limited product in existing Dollar Tree locations with prices that were higher than the usual $1 limit. The new concept offers a single storefront — about 10,500 square-feet of space — with one side carrying Family Dollar items and the other featuring Dollar Tree. Both brand names are featured prominently on the outside.

In fiscal year 2021, the company plans to open 600 new stores — 200 Family Dollar, including some with the new combined-store concept, and 400 Dollar Tree.