The nation's largest office product supplier, which opened 31 stores in the U.S. and six in Canada during the third quarter, said it also is testing a line of stand-alone copy and print shops in the Boston market near its Framingham, MA headquarters. The company said it expects to have a total of 100 new Staples stores opened by the end of the year
The expansion announcement, made during the company's third quarter conference call, comes as strong back-to-school sales, higher customer traffic and an increase in the size of the average order boosted Staples' quarterly profits 30%.
Net income for the August to October quarter was $289.9 million, or 39 cents a share, an increase of $55 million over the $224.5 million, or 30 cents per share, earned in the same period last year. Sales increase 12 % during the period to $4.76 billion compared with $4.25 billion in last year's third quarter.
"We're squarely focused on driving profitable growth and we're pleased to see the top line momentum in every part of our business," said Ron Sargent, Staples' chairman and chief executive officer.
Sales at North American stores open at least a year grew 4 % during the quarter while the company's North American delivery business rose 16%. International sales were up 10% in local currency and 15% in US dollars with rapid growth in both China and South America. In China alone, the company said it expects to approach $100 million in sales by the end of the year. In the United Kingdom, same store sales were flat, an improvement after three years of negative growth. Sargent noted that all of the company's other European markets were performing well with strong comparative store sales of 5%.
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