May 14--Sales at Mariano's older grocery stores slipped because of fresh competition from rivals and its own new stores, and parent company Roundy's now expects this year's sales to be weaker than it originally planned, it said Wednesday.
Roundy's placed a little bit of the blame a bit on itself, saying its newer stores drew patrons away from some of the older locations, echoing comments it made earlier this year. At the same time, chains such as Whole Foods Market now have more stores open in former Dominick's locations, which took a bite out of Mariano's results.
First-quarter sales at Mariano's stores jumped more than 68 percent to $335.2 million. However, sales at long-standing Mariano's locations fell 6.4 percent and would have been down 7.7 percent without Easter occurring during the quarter, the company said.
The number of transactions at Mariano's older locations fell 5.5 percent, and the average amount spent per transaction at those stores fell 0.9 percent, the company said.
The company expects overall same-store sales to fall 1.75 to 3.75 percent this fiscal year. As recently as early March, it was looking for such sales to fall just 0.25 percent to 1.25 percent. The fiscal year same-store sales forecasts are for the overall company, not just the Mariano's chain.
Roundy's has 31 Mariano's stores and plans to increase that to 34 by the end of the year. Ultimately, it aims to have 45 to 50 Mariano's locations.
During a conference call, Chairman and CEO Bob Mariano said he anticipates Mariano's sales will be back on track in the coming months.
jwohl@tribpub.com
