TJX Could Grow by Another 1300 Stores

The TJX Cos. Inc. (Framingham, Mass.) sees the potential to grow its already-sizable footprint by another 1300 units in its existing markets, the off-price retailer’s CEO/President says. Ernie Herrman made that prediction in a call with stock analysts in the aftermath of the retailer releasing strong results for its most recent quarter ended May 4.

“Over the long term, we see the potential to further expand our store footprint by at least another 1300-plus stores with our current retail banners in our existing countries alone,” Herrman told analysts.

At the end of its just-completed quarter, TJX operated 4972 stores across nine countries, including TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Homesense and Sierra in the U.S.; Winners, HomeSense, and Marshalls in Canada; TK Maxx and Homesense in Europe; and TK Maxx in Australia.

For its most recent quarter, those stores produced net sales of $12.5 billion, up 6% from a year earlier, and diluted earnings per share of $.93, up 22%.

“Overall comp store sales increased 3%, at the high-end of our plan, and both profitability and earnings per share were well above our expectations,” Herrman said in the earnings release. “Our teams across the company executed on our initiatives and were laser-focused on delivering consumers exciting values on great brands and fashions and a treasure-hunt shopping experience, every day… Longer term, we are excited about the potential we see to drive customer transactions and sales, capture additional market share and increase the profitability of TJX.”