Salt Lake-based retailer American Stores Co. said it will spend $2 billion over the next 3 years to open 45 new stores, an expansion the company says is the largest capital spending program ever launched by a food and drug retailer.
At the company's annual meeting Tuesday, vice chairman and co-chief executive officer Victor L. Lund told shareholders that American Stores plans to spend $608 million on expansion plans this year, up 61 percent from the $379 million it spent in 1991.He said the company plans to open 11 food stores, four combination food and drug stores, and 30 drug stores as well as remodel 172 of its existing stores. A spokesman for the company said most of the new stores will be opened on the West Coast and in the Midwest. None are scheduled to be built in Utah.
The goal of the spending program, which he said will be spread among all of American Stores' companies, "is to deliver both suitable returns and an exciting shopping experience . . . We have to be creative, adapting to changes in our marketplaces. Put another way, we have to deliver tomorrow's stores, today."
Lund said management has "detailed capital plans" to position the company "not only for today, but for the future" in the markets it serves and that the expansion over the next several years should "fuel the sales increases needed to deliver the higher earnings we are all seeking."
American Stores directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on the company's common stock of 17.5 cents per common share payable July 9 to shareholders of record on June 29.