Fred's June Comps. Up 1.6% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Fred's Inc. (FRED) reported that its total sales increased 12% to $212.9 million for the five-week period ended July 4, 2015, from $190.8 million in June 2014. Excluding $7.4 million from last year's June sales for 56 subsequently closed locations, total sales increased 16% for the month. Comparable store sales for the month increased 1.6%.

Jerry Shore, CEO, said, "The strong sales growth we experienced during June continued to reflect the recent expansion of our specialty pharmacy business, which accounted for approximately 11% of total sales."

"On a comparable store basis, June sales were on the lower end of our expectations, reflecting softer retail pharmacy department script volume and increasing reimbursement rate pressures associated with preferred Medicare Part D networks, which affects both sales and margins. On the other hand, general merchandise sales showed improvement in June and, on a comparable store basis, were flat for the month," said Jerry Shore.

Fred's total sales for the first five months of fiscal 2015 increased 6% to $889.1 million from $840.5 million for the same period last year. Excluding sales of $35.2 million from closed stores in 2014, total sales increased 10% for the first five months of 2015. On a comparable store basis, year-to-date sales increased 0.8%.