Family Dollar Stores today (30 March) reported an almost 10% increase in half-year profits, prompting the US retailer’s chief executive to claim the company was delivering “superior value” to its investors.
The discount retailer has faced criticism from activist investor Nelson Peltz, whose Trian Group investment fund last month tabled a US$7.8bn takeover bid for the business.
Family Dollar’s board rejected the offer, claiming the bid under-valued the business, and adopted a poison-pill defence that would flood the market with shares if any one investor built a stake of more than 10%.
The retailer has said its strategy had the best prospects of creating value for shareholders and its first-half results were evidence of the company’s ability to deliver, said chairman and CEO Howard Levine.
“Over the last several years, we have accelerated capability-building investments and increased our efforts to improve the in-store shopping experience. These investments have provided a solid foundation for the successful launch of our strategic plan to re-accelerate revenue growth, expand operating margins and optimize our capital structure,” Levine said. “Our performance year-to-date illustrates that we are effectively leveraging these enhanced capabilities and executing well against our business plan and delivering superior value for shareholders.”
In the six months to 27 February, Family Dollar increased net income by 9.8% to $197.5m. Net sales were up 8.9% to $4.26bn.

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By GlobalDataFor the second quarter of the year, net income climbed 9.8% to $123.2m. Net sales grew 8.3% to $2.26bn.