PriceSmart Appoints Maarten Jager As CFO; March Net Warehouse Club Sales Up 8.9%

(RTTNews) - PriceSmart Inc. (PSMT) said that it appointed Maarten Jager as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective April 24, 2018. Jager will replace John M. Heffner who has served in that role since January 2004 and had previously announced his plans to retire from the Company.

Jager currently serves as Senior Vice President of Walmart International, a segment of Walmart Inc., where he has worked since 2014. During his tenure at Walmart, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Sam's Club from 2015 to 2018 and as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of its Asia division from 2014 to 2015. Prior to Walmart, from 2013 to 2014, Mr. Jager worked as a consultant to public and private companies and their executives providing guidance on growth, turnaround and organizational effectiveness.

Separately, PriceSmart announced that for the month of March 2018, net warehouse club sales increased 8.9% to $261.3 million, from $239.9 million in March a year earlier. For the seven months ended March 31, 2018, net warehouse club sales increased 5.5% to $1,823.3 million from $1,728.2 million for the seven months ended March 31, 2017. There were 40 warehouse clubs in operation at the end of March 2018 and 39 warehouse clubs in operation at the end of March 2017.

For the four weeks ended April 1, 2018, comparable net warehouse club sales for the 40 warehouse clubs open at least 13 1/2 full months increased 3.5%, compared to the same four-week period last year. For the thirty-week period ended April 1, 2018, comparable net warehouse club sales increased 3.2%, compared to the comparable thirty-week period a year ago.