Green shoots are on the horizon for grocery chain Sprouts Farmers Market, the company's CEO says.
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Phoenix-based Sprouts has 455 stores across 24 states, but it is planning to triple that number to 1,400 across 50 states, Modern Retail reported.
The grocery chain didn’t disclose the time frame for its expansion and didn't respond to Bisnow's request for comment before press time.
Sprouts plans to open another 35 stores in the final quarter of 2025, CEO Jack Sinclair said during a presentation Monday at a Groceryshop conference in Las Vegas.
The retailer has been in growth mode, with its net sales increasing by 17% during the second quarter, public filings show.
It has opened new stores already this year, including in Utah, Tennessee and Florida, according to press releases from the retailer.
In June, it signed an 80K SF lease in Santa Ana, California, replacing a 99 Cents Only Store. It opened its fifth New Jersey location this week and announced plans for its next Washington, D.C., store.
Fresh produce accounts for around one-fifth of the grocery chain’s sales, Sinclair said. That means stores will depend on developing new distribution centers, which will have to be within 250 miles of its stores due to the chain’s health-focused customers.
It has recently built new distribution centers in Colorado, Florida and Southern California, with plans for more to come.
Although Sprouts’ business is largely supplemental for its consumers rather than being the store where they buy the bulk of their grocery hauls, its customers still spend around 13% of their grocery budgets at its stores.
With the U.S. food market worth around $1.6T, that 13% leaves plenty of room for Sprouts to grow, Sinclair said.
“We’re focusing in on $250B of that number,” he said. “We’re ignoring a huge chunk of the food industry to focus in on those health enthusiast customers.”
But Sprouts hasn’t been immune to changes in the grocery sector. When Amazon announced its same-day delivery grocery expansion initiative in August, Sprouts’ stock price dropped by 1.6%.
