Dive Brief:
- Publix announced Monday its sales rose 5.5%, to $15.5 billion, and comparable-store sales increased 4.1% during its fourth quarter — its highest increases for those metrics since the third quarter of 2023. The grocer said Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida in early October, lifted its Q4 sales by 1.4%.
- Publix’s net earnings of $1.2 billion for the quarter, which ended Dec. 28, 2024, were flat compared with the same period last year.
- Capital expenditures for 2024 totaled $2.6 billion, according to the grocer’s latest 10-K filing — a 30% increase over the $2 billion it spent in 2023 and 4% more than it anticipated spending.
Dive Insight:
While Publix has ramped up its capital spending in recent years, the grocer is expecting to reduce its capital budget by about 4% in 2025 compared with last year, to $2.5 billion.
During 2024, the grocer opened 43 supermarkets, closed 13 and remodeled 117. Publix ended the year with 1,390 stores, which is 30 more locations than it started the year with, according to the regulatory filing.
At the end of last year, Publix had 48 supermarkets under construction, with the majority (21) in Florida, seven in Georgia, six in North Carolina, five in Kentucky, four in South Carolina, two each in Alabama and Tennessee, and one in Virginia.
Publix plans to up its store count across existing markets
Publix has worked to refresh the shopping experience for its customers, such as rolling out last year a new store prototype that’s bigger and sleeker and adding more pharmacies, liquor outlets and in-store burrito bowl bars.
For fiscal 2024, Publix saw net earnings go up 6.6% to $4.6 billion. The grocer recorded $59.7 billion in sales, a 4.6% increase from the prior year, and comp sales growth of nearly 3%. Publix said new supermarket sales and higher comps primarily drove its sales increase in fiscal 2024.
On March 1, Publix’s stock, which is only available to company employees and its board members, saw its price increase from $18.05 to $19.20 per share.
