By Connor Hart
BJ's Wholesale Club said its expenses will grow faster than revenue this year, pressuring profitability as the company seeks to quickly expand its footprint with more stores.
The warehouse club on Thursday said it opened 14 stores last year, the most its ever added in a single year. Including those stores, the company remains on track to open up to 30 new locations by year end.
"As we look out at the new club pipeline, we would expect this pace of openings to continue over the coming years," Chief Executive Bob Eddy said on a call with analysts.
The expansions helped lift BJ's sales during its fiscal fourth quarter. The company reported traffic and market-share gains and said membership-fee income rose as it continued to attract cost-conscious shoppers despite ongoing uncertainty and macroeconomic volatility.
BJ's is driving steady membership renewal rates, strong traffic and healthy unit growth, Eddy said. The retailer is also benefiting from its expanding lineup of owned-brand products, which accounted for more than a quarter of sales last year.
"These products offer significant savings and are an increasingly important part of how families shop our clubs," Eddy said. "That loyalty, combined with higher margins, makes this effort powerful for our company."
The company also saw a sales boost late in the quarter as shoppers stocked up on supplies ahead of winter storms, he added.
Looking ahead, though, continued investments in stores and supply-chain capabilities are expected to weigh on BJ's earnings. The company guided for adjusted earnings of $4.40 to $4.60 a share this year, missing the $4.66 a share that Wall Street modeled.
Shares recently traded 2.7% lower, at $97.24.
Comparable-club sales -- or those from stores and digital channels open for at least a year -- are expected to grow 2% to 3% this year excluding gasoline sales, compared with analyst views for a 2.6% increase. They rose 1.6% during the recent quarter, or 2.6% excluding gasoline sales. Analysts were looking for a gain of 1.9%.
BJ's this year will continue investing in its supply-chain network to support long-term growth, including building out an automated distribution center in Ohio that is set to open next year, Chief Financial Officer Laura Felice said.
At the same time, membership-fee income is expected to moderate, as the company laps price increases that were implemented early in 2025 and returns to a more-normalized run rate, she said.
For the three months ended Jan. 31, BJ's posted a profit of $125.9 million, or 96 cents a share, compared with $122.7 million, or 92 cents a share, a year earlier. Stripping out one-time items, adjusted earnings were still 96 cents a share, ahead of the 93 cents a share that Wall Street modeled.
Total revenue grew 5.6% to $5.58 billion, just ahead of the $5.54 billion that analysts forecast.
Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 05, 2026 11:32 ET (16:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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