Dollar Tree closing hundreds more Family Dollar stores
Dollar Tree on Wednesday said it would close as many as 390 Family Dollar stores this year and rebrand about 200 more under its own banner. The discount chain also said it would write off $2.7 billion, or nearly a third of the value of Family Dollar, the struggling chain it bought in 2015 for nearly $9 billion following a bidding war.
"We are confident we are taking the appropriate steps to reposition our Family Dollar brand for increasing profitability as business initiatives gain traction in the back half of fiscal 2019," CEO Gary Philbin said in an earnings statement.
Shares of the Chesapeake, Virginia-based company rose 3 percent after it disclosed its restructuring plan and reported same-store sales had climbed 3.2 percent at the Dollar Tree brand stores, vs. 1.4 percent at Family Dollar stores, open at least a year.
Vying against the likes of Dollar General and Walmart, lackluster sales at Family Dollar have weighed on Dollar Tree's overall performance, prompting activist investor Starboard Value in January to call on management to explore a sale of the weaker business.
Dollar Tree also said it would look into pricing some items above a buck, another demand by Starboard.
The company operated 8,200 Family Dollar stores and 7,000 Dollar Tree stores at the end of the latest quarter.
Dollar Tree previously closed 122 Family Dollar stores in the fiscal year that ended Feb. 2, with 84 stores closing in the fourth quarter, 37 more than initially planned.