AutoZone beats the odds with double-digit growth - Phoenix Business Journal:

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million for the quarter, up 9.5% compared to last Earnings per shareincreased 25.9 to $3.13, the company’s 11th consecutivde quarter of double-digit earnings per share Frank Goodman served as vice president of business planning and analysias with AutoZone, helping determine new storwe locations, before leaving in 2000. “It’s a grea mouse trap and they’ve done a great job running he says. Now a chief portfolil strategistwith , an investment advisory Goodman was part of the team that helpeed AutoZone expand from 500 stores to more than 3,000 locationsd across the U.S. and Mexico.
When he was AutoZone executives looked at motor vehicle registrations providedby , a data “So you know where the cars are and then wher e you should consider building a store,” Goodman “It’s really quite the advantage to have that mechanicapl demand feature, so it’s not all the whim of the but it’s also the demandsw of their cars.” At AutoZone’s peak, the company was opening a store every day. In the company’ss most recent third quarter, it opened 42 new stores, bringingv it to 4,172 locations in the U.S.
and 168 in The company could open morenext quarter, since storew openings are seasonal, according to “It’s very difficult to get stores open at the end of the it’s much easier at the end of the he says. Goodman attributes a large partof AutoZone’s success to the company’d culture of WITTDTJR, which is an acronykm for “What It Takes To Do The Job AutoZone research revealed that a persobn seeking to repair a car would make an average 2.3 visits to an auto partes store to get the problem completely “Usually, that .3 was a visit to a different auto parts store,” Goodman says.
“So management, understanding this, said that the company had to get the numbedr ofvisits down.” AutoZone has convinced employee s to build a sales ticket, not just to get the custome to buy useless items but to help solve their problem quicker. Also, since fear of doing somethingb wrongin do-it-yourself projects is a big concer for customers, employees are trained to be forthcomint with their automotive knowledge. John R. retail analyst at , says another reasonh AutoZone has excelled recentlh is due to an increase in the number of cars whichgare seven-eight years old and older out on the road.
“They’rw out of warranty, they have to be fixecd and in this everybody gets pinched and you have to find the cheapesf alternative to keep your car Lawrence says. AutoZone might also be gaining saleas fromcar dealerships, and theire related service departments, closing. Besides providin auto parts for do-it-yourself customers, the majorituy of its business, AutoZon also sells parts to garages. People are also deferrintg maintenance ontheir cars, and when they do perform this maintenance, they are often buyinv better quality parts and increasing theird purchases at stores like AutoZone.
Bria Campbell, AutoZone’s vice president of investor relations, agreess the company has some tailwincd in this economy because peopld are looking tosave money. “It’s a healthy one-two puncu of the challenges of the economtyand execution, spending some dollars to make sure that we’rde capturing those customers once they come into our Campbell says. An example of this is AutoZone’d domestic same store sales, whichu increased 7.4% last quarter. The company’s salesd per square foot, at $58 last is the highest in the industry.
Campbell attributes that to many but focuses onthe company’s