Growth Strategy
We are a Fortune 500 company, ranking number 232 on the 2013 list. Our sales have grown rapidly due to historically strong identical store sales growth, acquisitions and new store openings from approximately $93 million in fiscal year 1991, excluding the effect of pooling-of-interests transactions completed since 1991, to approximately $12.9 billion in fiscal year 2013, a 22 year compounded annual growth rate of approximately 25%. Over the last 15 fiscal years, our comparable store sales growth has averaged 8.2%, and our identical store sales growth has averaged 7.3%. Sales of a store are deemed to be comparable commencing in the fifty-third full week after the store was opened
or acquired. Identical store sales exclude sales from relocated stores and remodeled stores with square footage changes greater than 20% from the comparable calculation. Our identical store sales growth for each of the last 15 fiscal years is shown in the following chart: