99¢ ONLY STORES® REPORTS TOTAL SALES FOR THE THIRD QUARTER OF THE 2007 FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2006 OF $302.1 MILLION AND A SAME-STORE-SALES INCREASE OF 1.9%.
CITY OF COMMERCE, CA - January 8, 2007- 99¢ Only Stores® (NYSE:NDN) (the “Company”) today reports total sales of $302.1 million for the third quarter of the 2007 fiscal year ended December 31, 2006. This represents an increase of 8.3% over total sales of $278.8 million for the same quarter last year. Retail sales for the quarter ended December 31, 2006 were $291.6 million, up 8.3% from retail sales of $269.3 million for the same quarter last year.
The Company's same-store-sales for the third quarter ended December 31, 2006 increased 1.9% versus the same quarter last year. For this period, the number of overall same-store-sales transactions increased by 0.3%, and the average transaction size increased by 1.6%, from $9.37 to $9.53.
Total sales for the nine months ended December 31, 2006 were $826.8 million, up 7.4% over sales of $769.5 million in the nine months ended December 31, 2005. Total retail sales for the nine months ended December 31, 2006 were $797.4 million, up 7.8% over sales of $739.7 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2005. Same-store-sales for the nine months ended December 31, 2006 were up 2.2%
During the quarter ended December 31, 2006, the Company opened a total of four new stores located in California (2), Arizona and Texas. Gross and saleable retail square footage at the end of the quarter ended December 31, 2006 were 5.40 million and 4.24 million, an increase over last year of 6.2% and 6.3%, respectively. As of December 31, 2006, the Company had 245 stores (37 in Texas), up 7.0% compared to 229 stores (36 in Texas) as of December 31, 2005.
Bargain Wholesale sales for the quarter ended December 30, 2006 were $10.5 million compared to $9.5 million in the same quarter last year, a 10.4% increase.
Eric Schiffer, CEO of the Company, said, "We were pleased to continue our positive trend in same-store-sales with a 1.9% increase for the quarter ended December 31, 2006 and to see improvement in both our non-Texas and Texas stores. Overall, both the same-store-sales average transaction size and the number of transactions increased.
“For Texas we had an increase in same-store-sales average transaction size as well as the number of transactions for the quarter ended December 31, 2006. We believe Texas sales continued to benefit primarily from operational improvements and positive word of mouth. For our non-Texas stores, the same-store-sales average transaction size increased while the number of transactions was flat for the quarter.
"We were excited about the performance of the new stores, including a Houston location, we opened in the December 31, 2006 quarter. As previously announced, the Company slowed its store opening growth rate in fiscal 2006 and 2007 to help allow the Company to focus on implementing operational improvements to better support its existing stores and to establish a foundation for future growth. While many of these improvement efforts continue into fiscal 2007 as planned, we believe we are beginning to see significant progress in our systems and teamwork across the organization.
“We were pleased with certain aspects of our execution during both the Halloween and Christmas holidays. Going forward, our team will continue to focus on improving overall execution while continuing to build a real estate pipeline to increase our store opening growth rate from 8% to 9% in our current fiscal year to about 15% in fiscal 2008. These new stores are planned to open in the Company’s current markets of California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada. Subsequently, the Company plans to continue to open stores at a rate of 15% per year as it expands into new markets as part of its long term vision to become America’s favorite and best run deep-discount store."
The Company also reported that as previously announced, it is continuing procedures necessary for filing its fiscal 2006 Form 10-K, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 and will provide an update to investors as to its expected filing date(s) as soon as practicable.
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99¢ Only Stores®, the nation's oldest existing one-price retailer, operates 245 deep-discount retail stores in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada, and also operates a wholesale division called Bargain Wholesale. The Company’s next four 99¢ Only Stores are scheduled to open in February, two in Northern California and two in Texas. 99¢ Only Stores® emphasizes name-brand consumables, priced at an excellent value, in attractively merchandised stores, where nothing is ever over 99¢.
We have included statements in this release that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act and Section 27A of the Securities Act. The words "expect," "estimate," "anticipate," "predict," "believe" and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements appear in this release and include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company, its directors or officers with respect to, among other things, trends affecting the financial condition or results of operations of the Company, the business and growth strategies of the Company, and the results of the Company’s operational improvements. The shareholders of the Company and other readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those projected in this release for the reasons, among others, discussed in the reports and other documents the Company files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors contained in the Section - “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of the Company’s Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.
Note to Editors: 99¢ Only Stores® news releases and information available on the World Wide Web at http://www.99only.com. Contact Rob Kautz, EVP & CFO, 323-881-1293
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