Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Inc. recently opened its newest store in Pagosa Springs, Colo, marking the grocer’s 40th location in Colorado and 154th in the U.S.
“We intend to continue expanding our store base through new store openings in existing markets, as well as penetrating new markets, by leveraging our core competencies of site selection and efficient store openings,” the retailer, based in Lakewood, Colo., said in a statement.
Natural Grocers focuses on high-quality natural and organic products and dietary supplements plans to continue expanding in 2020 and beyond. The company opened six new stores in fiscal 2019 and plans to open five to six new stores in fiscal 2020, which began Nov. 1. It currently operates in 19 states.
Natural Grocers plans to spend between $28 million to $33 million on capital expenditures during fiscal 2020. Its new stores typically require an upfront capital investment of about $2.1 million per store.
While it operates smaller-footprint stores, Natural Grocers also aims to offer a broad selection in the categories it stocks. On average, stores feature approximately 22,000 SKUs of natural and organic products, which includes an average of 6,700 SKUs of dietary supplements.
“Our store model has been successful in highly competitive markets and has supported significant growth outside of our original Colorado geography,” said the statement. “We believe our supply chain and infrastructure are scalable and will accommodate significant growth based on the ability of our primary distribution relationships to effectively service our planned store locations.”
According to its annual report, Natural Grocers’ net sales were $903.6 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, an increase of $54.5 million, or 6.4%, compared to the prior fiscal year’s net sales.