Publix rings up $8 billion in sales
Lakeland-based chain reports $8.8 billion in third quarter.
Publix Supermarkets made $8.8 billion in the third quarter, even though it struggled to match big sales from Hurricane Irma last year, the company reported Thursday.
Sales increased 3.2 percent, but same-store sales were up just 0.6 percent because the company saw a massive boost last year from high demand because of the storm.
Even so, net earnings soared for the Lakeland-based supermarket chain to $677.7 million, up 42.7 percent from last year’s third quarter. Much of the sales increases came from new stores opened over the last year. It also benefited from lower corporate income tax rates passed last year and a new accounting standard that allowed them to count more profits.
But Publix said taking out the bump last year from Irma, sales would have still increased about 6.3 percent year over year.
Even though Hurricane Irma closed hundreds of Publix stores last year during Hurricane Irma and some remained closed for days after due to a lack of electricity, sales still soared when customers stocked up before and then restocked spoiled fridges in the days after.
It attributed about a $272 million sales boost to Hurricane Irma last year. So without a storm in the third quarter the size of Irma, sales were close to flat.
So far for the year, sales are up 4.7 percent compared with the first nine months of 2017.
Along with the earnings report, Publix said its stock price was increasing 15 cents a share to $42.70. Publix’s stock is privately traded and only available to employees and board members.
Publix adjusts its stock price quarterly based on what auditors think it should be based on sales and stock performance of other supermarket companies.
Publix now has 1,207 stores nationwide, including 798 in Florida and 190,000 employees.