Michael Balmuth, the vice chairman, president and CEO of RossStores, said in the conference call that the accelerated growththis year would be driven primarily by the acquisition in late 2006of a number of former Albertsons sites by Ross. About 40 of the newRoss and dd's locations that will open in 2007 will occupy theformer supermarket sites.

According to Balmuth's comments during the conference call, thenew stores that the company opens in the former Albertsonslocations will all be in "established top-performing markets inCalifornia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma. Abouthalf of the former grocery stores will be turned into Ross Dressfor Less locations and about half of them into dd's Discountsstores.

Balmuth outlined the store expansion plans as part of hiscomments about Ross Stores' fourth-quarter and full-year financialresults, which included record full-year earnings. The companyearned $93.1 million for the 14 weeks ended Feb. 3, or 66 cents pershare, compared with earnings of $71 million, or 49 cents pershare, in the comparable period last year, which was one weekshorter. Sales for the 14-week quarter increased 14% to $1.6billion, with comparable store sales growing 1% on top of a 6%increase in the previous year.