CSG Snapshot: 99 Cents Only Stores

4000 Union Pacific Ave
Commerce CA 90023
(323) 980-8145
99only.com

Total Stores
392

Total Sales
$1.96 billion

Year Founded
1982

Trading Areas
AZ, CA, NV, TX

Senior Executives
President + CEO: Geoffrey Covert
CFO: Felicia Thronton
Chief Merchandising Officer: Jack Sinclair

SNAPFORWARD

After assembling a leadership team in the past year with a track record of success at retail winners like Kroger and Walmart, this is perhaps the last best chance for a turnaround at 99 Cents Only Stores. Building its way out of a sales slump doesn’t seem to be part of the plan. CEO Geoff Covert believes that the 40 stores the company added in 2014 (the largest one-year growth spurt in company history) combined with the 7 added in 2015 cannibalized existing store sales. Instead, tighter inventory control ($130 million reduction in inventory since the second half of calendar 2015) combined with better inventory management (to eliminate stock outages for the top 300 products) is one piece of the puzzle. Another is an improved consumer experience along with a more appealing merchandise mix – an opportunity for potential suppliers as the company looks for products to fuel success. Recent results (Q1) featured some improvements, such as flat same store sales as opposed to negative, but the jury is still out.

Source: Chain Store Guide’s Database of Discount Stores & Specialty Retailers.