Weis To Spend $101 Million On Cap Ex; Comps Down In First Quarter

Jonathan Weis, CEO and vice chairman of Weis Markets, announced late last month at its annual shareholder’s meeting that it would invest $101 million in its growth program in 2014. The meeting was held at Weis’ corporate offices in Sunbury, PA.

“Since 2008, we have invested more than $500 million in our growth and improvement programs. During this period, we completed more than a hundred projects,” said Weis. “This year, we plan to invest $101 million in growth and expect to complete work on 16 projects in 2014.”

Weis noted that the company opened four stores in 2013 – Woodlawn, MD; Towson, MD; Hillsborough, NJ (all former A&P/Super Fresh stores); and Huntingdon Valley, PA (a former Pathmark unit).Weis told shareholders of several key company initiatives, including its supply chain.

“As a company that self-distributes, our supply chain is a vitally important area for us. Over the last year, we have increased our focus on maximizing efficiency by driving millions of dollars of cost out of the system, while maintaining our high standards for store service. This has helped us reduce store level inventories and improve freshness.”

Related to its supply chain initiatives, Weis plans to expand its 1.1 million square foot distribution center in Milton, PA in 2014.

The closely-held company also reported that its first quarter net income dropped 26.6 percent ($0.55 per share) to $14.8 million in its first quarter ended March 29. During the 13 week period Weis’ sales increased 0.6 percent to $687.1 million while its comparable store sales were down 1.3 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

The regional chain noted that its results were impacted by timing of the Easter holiday, which was observed in the first quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2014.

“We have met our first quarter sales goals. Adjusted for the Easter holiday shift, our sales increased 1.7 percent despite price reductions on thousands of items,” said Weis. “We achieved our sales goal by reinvesting in sales through our ‘Three More Ways to Save’ program, which has generated higher per customer sales and an increase in center store unit sales. These reinvestments are a key part of our long-term strategy to generate increased sales and market share.”

Additionally, the publicly-traded (but closely held) retailer announced that it has filled a key executive position at the company. David Gose has been named senior VP-operations, a job that had been open for several months following the departure of Mike Mignola. Gose brings a strong store ops background to Weis having worked for Wal-Mart for the past 21 years, most recently as regional general manager for 92 Wal-Mart stores in Ohio. In that post, he supervised 12 market managers and more than 30,000 associates.  Earlier in his career at Wal-Mart, he worked as a district manager in the company’s Midwest and Northeast/Mid-Atlantic division. He earned a degree in business administration from Ohio University.

Gose will report directly to COO Kurt Schertle.