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GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. — Dollar General Corp. on Wednesday announced it had eliminated about 225 positions at its corporate headquarters in a cost-cutting move.
Dollar General Corp. on Wednesday announced it had eliminated about 225 positions at its corporate headquarters in a cost-cutting move.
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No store-level jobs are affected, the company said, and about 115 of the eliminated positions were already vacant.
Dollar General said it expects a third quarter pretax charge of about $7 million for the move. It also noted that it intends to implement a more rigorous budgeting process and continue looking for ways to control costs.
Nearly all of the layoffs are effective immediately, and they account for about 23% of its corporate staff, which before the announcement numbered about 1,100 people.
"Over the last several months, we have taken a hard look at our cost structure and are streamlining our support functions to improve our financial flexibility while positioning us to better serve our customers and to capitalize on long-term growth opportunities," remarked chief executive officer Todd Vasos in a press release. "This restructuring should allow us to continue strengthening our market leadership position and deliver long-term value for our shareholders."
Vasos took over as CEO on June 3, succeeding Rick Dreiling. At that time, Dollar General issued fiscal 2015 guidance suggesting that executives were expecting strong growth, including an increase in total sales of between 8% and 9%, same-store sales growth of 3% to 3.5% and earnings-per-share growth of 10% to 13% over 2014 levels. The company was also forecasting that retail square footage would increase by about 7% and that it would open 730 new stores in the period.
In August, Dollar General reported fiscal second quarter earnings of $282.3 million on revenue of $5.1 billion as both store traffic and transaction value increased from year-earlier levels. Net sales rose 7.9% in the period, while same-store sales increased 2.8%.
Dollar General has 12,198 stores in 43 states.
