PHOENIX, AZ – Sprouts Farmers Market is expanding its national footprint by opening 14 stores during its third quarter this year.

“We’re on track to open a total of 14 stores during the third quarter, putting us at 24 stores for the calendar year, or 14% unit growth.  Our growth plans currently includes 67 of pre-sites, and 42 signed leases for the coming years.  All of our new stores are performing better than we expected, as we continue to serve as the healthy grocery store for our customers,” said Doug Sanders, Sprouts President & CEO during the company’s Q2 earnings conference call.

As we reported last week, Sprouts released its Q2 financial report on August 7th, 2014, beating analysts expectations across the board. Net sales rose 20% over numbers from the same period in 2013 to $743.8 million and comparable store sales grew 9.5%.

Other highlights from Sprouts Q2 Financial Report were:

• Net income rose to $30.2 million with a diluted earnings per share of $0.20
• A 68% increase in adjusted net income to $30.2 million. During the same period in 2013 this figure was $18.0 million
• A 43% increase in adjusted diluted earnings per share to $0.20. During the same period in 2013 this figure was $0.14.
• A 31% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $69.1 million.
• A increase in Sprout's 2014 Guidance 

For more info on Sprouts Q2, check out our previous article by clicking here.

Amin Maredia, Sprouts CFO, said during the call, “With the opening of 14 new stores for the third quarter, we expect pre-opening cost to be approximately $2 million higher than the prior year. Further, as you know, in our new store model, our new stores start off with a lower gross margin than our mature stores and we have built in the compression to the gross profit and overall EBITDA margins from the new store openings for remainder of the year in our guidance.”

Sanders added, “I'd like to take time to recognize the tremendous effort of all our team members throughout the Company and especially those involved in our numerous new store openings. Our Southeast expansion involved combined efforts of countless team members from across the Company, and I cannot thank our entire team enough for all their hard work and dedication.”

Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow to see where Sprouts will be popping up next.

Sprouts Farmers Market