Noddle also addressed industry rumors of Supervalu's interest in shuttered Winn-Dixie stores. "Since we're on the subject, I would like to set the record straight," he said. "There has been speculation that we were bidding on some of these properties for corporate stores. We are actually aggregating a bid for our affiliated retail customers on some of the Winn-Dixie properties." He added that the bids have been successful, and 18 Winn-Dixie properties will go to an independent retailer.

New store activity since last year's first quarter, including licensed stores, resulted in 91 new store openings, opened and acquired, and 34 store closings for 57 net new store openings. During the past 12 months, new store openings included 81 extreme value stores, and 10 regional banner stores. Store closings for the last 12 months include 33 extreme value stores and one regional banner store. At the end of its first quarter, Save-A-Lot, including licensed stores, operated 1,287 stores, of which 483 stores were combination stores compared to 314 combination stores at the end of last year's first quarter.

Moving into it second quarter, Noddle told investors that the company is planning for extensive remodeling in 200 to 300 its licensed stores, which may result in a slow-down of store openings. Each store will spend anywhere from $20 million to $30 million to "upgrade the Save-A-Lot fleet and bring in line the earlier generation Save-A-Lot stores to new store standards including equipment as well as branding image."

In closing, Noddle reassured investors saying, "I am confident that we have a very strong portfolio of businesses that are capable of generating solid growth that continue and are continuing to improve on our return of invested capital."