Dive Brief:
- Sprouts Farmers Market recorded a 5% increase in net sales and a 1% decrease in comparable-store sales during its second quarter 2026 — results that were “in line with our expectations,” CEO Jack Sinclair told investors Wednesday.
- New store openings fueled the net sales growth. However, the dip in same-store sales partially offset it, CFO Curtis Valentine said.
- Sprouts also completed the rollout of its meat distribution facilities with the opening of a Northern California facility in Q2, President and COO Nick Konat said. Now, around 85% of Sprouts’ stores carry fresh meat that flows through the company’s own distribution centers, according to Sinclair.
Dive Insight:
While Sprouts has seen modest improvements in both traffic and units, it recognizes that its shoppers still face an uneven macroeconomic environment. So, Sinclair said the company remains focused on “areas we can control,” including sharpening value, strengthening local product sourcing, improving in-store experiences, advancing supply chain capabilities and continuing to maintain a strong new-store pipeline.
The grocer’s loyalty program has been one way that it has been able to gain more customer insights. As Sprouts continues to bolster the program, which has been live chainwide for less than a year, building out first-party data capabilities remains a priority for long-term value strategy, Sinclair said.
“Loyalty and personalization remain important long-term enablers for the business,” Sinclair said. “As consumer behavior evolves against this uneven macroeconomic backdrop, we continue to see progress. Our acceleration efforts have identified new tactics to drive sales that should benefit us in the second half, and the data we are building is increasingly useful across the business with more in-depth customer behavior and preferences.”
Sprouts plans to use this data to improve communication with its customers by sending out more targeted media and tailoring messaging to prompt product discovery, Sinclair added.
E-commerce also continues to perform well, with digital sales growing more than 12% in Q2, accounting for approximately 16% of total quarterly sales, Valentine said.
The grocer’s private label work also continues to pay off, with the Sprouts brand once again outperforming the rest of the business, representing 26% of total sales, Valentine noted.
Sprouts’ self-distribution push, which has so far focused on produce and meat, will next focus on bringing select Sprouts brand items into existing company-owned distribution centers, Konat said. This will let the specialty grocer take more ownership of the items that are important to its customers, he added.
Sinclair said that Sprouts plans to open 42 new stores in 2026, slightly ahead of its original guidance of at least 40 new locations.
