Fred's June Comps. Down 1.3% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Fred's Inc. (FRED) reported total sales for the five-week fiscal month of June, which ended on July 2, 2016, of $208.5 million; down 2.3% compared with $213.3 million in June 2015. Comparable store sales for the month decreased 1.3%.

Jerry Shore, CEO, said, "Although sales for the month were lower than plan, we were encouraged with the front store performance in June. Lower pharmacy sales reflected the industry-wide slowdown in specialty pharmacy sales attributable to the demand for Hepatitis C drugs as well as a decline in retail sales and scripts, which underscored calendar shifts that benefited May to the detriment of June."

For the first five months of fiscal 2016, total sales increased 3.8% to $923.2 million compared with $889.5 million for the same period last year. On a comparable store basis, year-to-date sales increased 0.1%.