Dive Brief:
- Publix announced Monday its sales rose 2.8%, to $16 billion, and comparable-store sales increased 0.7% during its fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 27.
- The grocer’s net earnings of $1.2 billion for the quarter were flat compared with the same period last year.
- Capital expenditures for 2025 totaled $2.3 billion, according to the grocer’s latest 10-K filing — slightly less than the $2.6 billion it spent in 2024 and 8% less than it anticipated spending.
Dive Insight:
During its second quarter of fiscal 2025, Publix achieved its highest increases for sales and comp-store sales since the fourth quarter of 2024, with those metrics rising 7.3% and 6%, respectively. Since then, though, Publix has seen growth for both of those metrics slow.
During Q3, Publix’s sales grew 5.2% and comps grew 3.4%. The grocer’s most recent quarter recorded even smaller increases for both metrics.
Publix attributed the slowdown between Q4 and the same quarter the prior year to the boost in sales from Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida in October 2024. Excluding the impact of the hurricane, the grocer said it would have seen a 4.1% increase in sales.
During Q4, Publix continued its efforts to move up the East Coast. In October, the grocer said it had signed a lease for a new location in Manassas, Virginia — a state where the grocer has opened two dozen stores since its arrival there in 2017.
In 2025, Publix opened 52 supermarkets, closed 10 and completed 89 remodels. While the grocer’s capital expenditures came in lower than it initially expected, Publix said it expects to spend $2.4 billion in 2026 — slightly more than it did in 2025.
For the full fiscal year, Publix saw a 5% bump in sales, to $62.7 billion, which it said was mainly due to new supermarket sales and a 3.5% increase in comp-store sales, which it attributed to the impact of inflation on product costs. Net earnings for the fiscal year increased 2.1%, to $4.7 billion.
