Weis Markets will spend a record $135 million on capital projects in 2021 according to Jonathan Weis, the retailer’s chairman and CEO. Weis made his remarks at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting which was held at Weis’ corporate headquarters in Sunbury, PA on April 29.
Specific investments will be made to finance remodels, fuel centers, information technology upgrades and more than a thousand smaller store improvement projects. Additionally, Weis will open five new stores in 2021.
“Already this year, we’ve opened a new store in Martinsburg, West Virginia and a remodeled store in Gap, Pennsylvania, which was closed for 18 months due to a fire,” said Weis. “We are currently finishing up work on two stores in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, which will open later this spring (specifically on May 19) and have started work on a new store in Warminster, Pennsylvania, our second in Bucks County.”
Weis also plans eight remodels and eight fuel centers in 2021. While all of these projects will begin in 2021, some may not be completed until 2022.
In his recap to the shareholder, Weis also noted: “We are awed by the efforts of those who work in retail, most especially our Weis associates who took care of our customers during challenging times. They are among the unsung heroes of the past year.”
The 53-year-old chief executive also praised the company’s pharmacy team which has vaccinated more than 145,000 people in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and New Jersey since late January.
Weis and the executive team also briefed shareholders on the company’s financial results. In fiscal year 2020, Weis generated $4.1 billion in sales – up 16.1 percent – while comparable store sales increased 16.4 percent. Net income jumped 74.9 percent to $118.9 million.
A few days later, on May 3, Weis released its Q1 financials for the period ended March 27.
As expected, both sales and earnings dipped slightly because of comparisons to last year’s first quarter (January, February and March) when COVID-19 buying produced strong sales for most retailers especially during the month of March.
Still, comp store sales increased 1.4 percent as compared to 12.8 percent in the corresponding period last year. At that time a year ago, Weis estimated that comps would have risen about 1.5 percent.
Overall sales for the 2021 period climbed by 2.1 percent to $1 billion, compared to a 12.4 percent increase last year. Compared to 2019, sales were up by 14.8 percent. First-quarter net income in 2021 decreased 9.1 percent to $24.3 million compared to $26.7 million in 2020, or 90 cents per share compared to 99 cents for the same period in 2020. Income from operations dipped 14.9 percent to $31.8 million.