Tom Folliard, CarMax president and CEO, called next year's store opening plan "fairly balanced." Commented Folliard, "We'll be entering five new markets and expanding our presence in six existing markets, geographically dispersed across the country. The opening plan also contains a mix of market sizes, ranging from San Diego, which is our first new large market in several years, to markets such as Omaha and Jackson." CarMax now operates 74 used car superstores in 35 markets and seven new car franchises.

The new superstore openings will follow the scheduled opening of four more superstores in this fiscal quarter for the company, which opened two superstores in late November, including a satellite superstore in the Los Angeles market and a standard superstore in Fredericksburg, VA. In the first nine months of this fiscal year, the company has opened six superstores, including four standard superstores and two satellite superstores.

The openings of the new locations are part of the company's long-term business strategy, Folliard said, pointing out that the company sees "many opportunities for geographic expansion." The openings of the new locations next fiscal year will expand the company's used car superstore base by approximately 17%. The CarMax long-range strategy has set a target of used car superstore annual growth in the range of 15% to 20%.

Company officials discussed expansion plans as part of a conference call with financial analysts Wednesday to report results for the third quarter ended Nov. 30. CarMax posted record results, with net income soaring 98% to 45.4 million, or 42 cents per share, compared with $22.9 million, or 22 cents per share, earned in the third quarter of last year. Sales climbed 24% to $1.77 billion from $1.42 billion in the third quarter of last year, with an increase of 13% for comparable store used car sales.

Folliard attributed the strong comp figure in the used car sales category to "a combination of strong store and Internet traffic," adding that it was difficult for the company to attribute its strong traffic flow to any single factor because "a number of elements had a positive effect." Sales of SUVs and trucks rebounded, Folliard pointed out. He explained that sales of SUVs and trucks "were adversely affected last year by consumer reaction to higher gas prices."

This year's third quarter was unusual in that the company showed year-over-year increases in gross profit dollars per unit in all categories, including used, new and wholesale vehicles, Folliard noted. He said that the results were unusual because historically the company's margins have been seasonally weakest in the third quarter because of the effects of the model year change-over period and slowing customer traffic in the fall.