Grocer racks up another impressive year

Publix Super Markets hit a milestone in 2015 as it exceeded the $30 billion mark in annual sales and also racked up another impressive quarter.



The grocer reported that net earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 26, 2015, rose 15% to $521.1 million, from $453.3 million in the year ago period. For the full year, earnings rose some 13%, to $2 billion, compared to $1.7 billion last year.



Publix’s sales for the quarter increased 4.5% to $8.2 billion, up from $7.9 billion in the year-ago period. Same-store sales rose 3.2%. Sales for the fiscal year were $32.4 billion, up 5.9% from last year’s $30.6 billion. Comparable-store sales for 2015 increased 4.2%.



Publix has been on a roll, expanding into new markets. Most recently, it was entering the state of Virginia, and had already signed two leases, one in Bristol, and another in the Richmond area. Virginia will be the chain’s seventh state of operation. The company, which operates more than 1,000 stores in the southeast, entered North Carolina in 2014.



Effective March 1, 2016, Publix’s stock price increased from $41.80 per share to $45.20 per share.