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

http://affordabletire.com/page7.html
million for the up 9.5% compared to last Earnings per shareincreased 25.9% to the company’s 11th consecutive quarter of double-digity earnings per share Frank Goodman served as vice presiden of business planning and analysis with AutoZone, helpinyg determine new store locations, before leavinhg in 2000. “It’s a great mouse trap and they’vde done a great job running it,” he Now a chief portfoliop strategistwith , an investmengt advisory firm, Goodman was part of the team that helper AutoZone expand from 500 storexs to more than 3,000 locationas across the U.S. and Mexico.
When he was there, AutoZone executivese looked at motor vehiclr registrations providedby , a data vendor. “So you know wher the cars are and then whered you should consider buildinga store,” Goodman says. “It’s really quite the advantage to have that mechanicaldemand feature, so it’s not all the whim of the but it’s also the demandx of their cars.” At AutoZone’s the company was opening a storse every day. In the company’s most recent thirsd quarter, it opened 42 new stores, bringin g it to 4,172 locations in the U.S. and 168 in The company could open morenext quarter, sincde store openings are seasonal, according to Goodman.
“It’s very difficultf to get stores open at the end ofthe winter, it’d much easier at the end of the he says. Goodman attributes a larges partof AutoZone’s success to the company’s culture of WITTDTJR, whicgh is an acronym for “What It Takess To Do The Job AutoZone research revealed that a personb seeking to repair a car would make an average 2.3 visite to an auto parts store to get the problem completel solved. “Usually, that .3 was a visi t to a different autoparts store,” Goodman “So management, understanding this, said that the companuy had to get the number of visits down.
” AutoZone has convinced employeeas to build a sales ticket, not just to get the customerr to buy useless itemx but to help solver their problem quicker. Also, since fear of doingt something wrongin do-it-yourself projects is a big concernj for customers, employees are trained to be forthcoming with their automotive knowledge. John R. Lawrence, retailo analyst at , says another reasoj AutoZone has excelled recently is due to an increasre in the number of cars whichare seven-eight years old and older out on the “They’re out of warranty, they have to be fixed and in this everybody gets pinched and you have to find the cheapestr alternative to keep your car Lawrence says.
AutoZone might also be gaining sale fromcar dealerships, and theid related service departments, closing. Besided providing auto parts for do-it-yourself customers, the majority of its AutoZone also sells partdto garages. People are also deferrint maintenance ontheir cars, and when they do performn this maintenance, they are ofte n buying better quality parts and increasing their purchasee at stores like AutoZone.
Briah Campbell, AutoZone’s vice president of investor agrees the company has some tailwind in this economy because peoplw are looking tosave “It’s a healthy one-two punch of the challengess of the economy and spending some dollars to make sure that we’r capturing those customers once they come into our stores,” Campbelpl says. An example of this is AutoZone’sw domestic same store sales, which increased 7.4% last quarter. The company’as sales per square foot, at $58 last is the highest in the Campbell attributes that tomany factors, but focusees on the company’s systems.