Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage plans to grow its store base by nearly a quarter in the coming year, opening at least 20 more stores by October.
The Lakewood-based natural and organic grocer laid out the expansion plans Thursday when reporting earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter and year.
For the year, Natural Grocers saw net sales grow 20 percent to $624.7 million, with daily comparable store sales up 5.9 percent. Net income increased 20.3 percent to $16.2 million, with diluted earnings per share of 72 cents for the fiscal year.
The company, which went public in 2012, opened 16 new stores during fiscal 2015, one more than in fiscal 2014.
Plans for fiscal 2016 call for 23 new stores — including three now open in Conifer, Salt Lake City and Bountiful, Utah — for a unit growth of 22.3 percent.
As of Thursday, 17 leases had been signed for stores scheduled to open in fiscal 2016 and 2017 in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.
"We are pleased to report another year of strong financial results while continuing our annual unit growth rate of approximately 20 percent," co-president Kemper Isely said in a statement.
Founded in 1955, Natural Grocers now has 106 stores in 18 states.