Monro's 2Q Sales Performance Was Up and Down

Oct. 20, 2016

Monro Muffler Brake Inc. posted net income of $17.5 million on net sales of $248.6 million for its second quarter ended Sept. 24, 2016. That compares to income of more than $18.8 million on sales of $239.1 million for the same period last year.

The company's 2Q income-to-sales ratio in fiscal 2017 was 7%, down from 7.9% in the second quarter of fiscal 2016. Its operating income was down 6.3%, from $34.1 million to $31.9 million.

The comparative 3.9% increase in sales was due to an increase of $22.3 million in new store sales; that includes $20.1 million in sales from recently acquired stores. Sales were partially offset by a comparable store sales decrease of 4.3%.

Comparable store sales were flat for tires, but declined approximately 2% for maintenance services, 6% for alignments, 13% for brakes and 13% for front end/shocks.

Monro opened 36 company-operated locations and closed three company-operated locations during the second quarter, ending the quarter with 1,097 company-operated tire stores and Monro Muffler outlets and 131 franchised Car-X stores. The new stores include the acquisition of 26 Clark Tire & Auto Inc. retail and commercial tire and service locations. Clark Tire is based in Hickory, N.C. In addition, Monro opened 10 greenfield locations.

"Despite the difficult operating environment, our bottom-line focus, diligent cost control and successful integration of our recent acquisitions allowed us to deliver sales and earnings within our guidance range," says John Van Heel, CEO and president.

"While we are not satisfied with our comparable store sales results, we did see incremental improvement as we moved through the quarter, with the month of September down 2.6%. Importantly, the disparity in top-line trends between our northern and southern markets narrowed in the second quarter, with continued positive comparable store sales in the South and improved trends in the North. This was supported by stronger tire sales as we moved through the quarter, driven by higher tire units, ending the quarter with an increase of 3% in comparable tire sales in the month of September.

"October month-to-date comparable store sales are down approximately 3% versus an increase of 3.7% in the same period during the prior year, with Hurricane Matthew negatively impacting this year by approximately 1%.”