For the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 27, 2025, Monro Inc. saw is net income increase 0.3% to $5.67 million. Gross profit decreased 3.1% to $103.11 million, yet gross margin grew from 35.3% to 35.7% year over year.
Sales declined 4.1% to $288.91 million. A closer look shows …
• Tires came in at $135.10 million – down 4.5%
• Maintenance came in at $79.00 million – down 4.9%
• Brakes came in at $40.32 million – down 0.8%
• Steering came in at $25.08 million – up 0.4%
• Batteries came in at $4.63 million – down 26.4%
• Exhaust came in at $4.34 million – down 3.9%
• Franchise royalties came in at $399,000 — up 5.0%
Monro’s year-over-year overall sales decrease was tied to closed shops (more on that later), partially offset by a 1.1% increase in comparable-store sales. Notably, the company was able to report a third consecutive quarter of positive comps for the first time in a couple of years.
On a comparable-store basis, Monro’s product category sales breaks down as …
• Front end/shocks up 18% against a 5% decrease a year ago for a two-year stack of +13%
• Brakes up 6% against a 12% decrease a year ago for a two-year stack of -6%
• Maintenance service unchanged up against a 7% decrease a year ago for a two-year stack of -7%
• Tires unchanged up against a 4% decrease a year ago for a two-year stack of -4%
• Alignment down 5% against unchanged a year ago for a two-year stack of -5%
• Batteries down 21% against a 20% increase a year ago for a two-year stack of -1%
In terms of cadence, comps were up roughly 2% in July and up 3% in August but down 2% in September.
One other related data point: Monro was down mid-single digits in traffic for the quarter but up mid-single digits in ticket, netting out to the 1.1% overall comp increase noted above.
“While we have seen some recent softness in consumer demand which is reflected in preliminary October comps that are down 2%, we expect to deliver positive comp-store sales in fiscal 2026,” President and CEO Peter Fitzsimmons stated. “And, we have a variety of levers to pull that we believe will enable us to achieve meaningfully higher year-over-year adjusted operating income.”
Fitzsimmons told analysts on Monro’s Oct. 29 earnings call: “I’m optimistic about the opportunities in front of us, and I believe Monro is well-positioned to capitalize on positive industry trends as we focus on driving profitable growth. Having said this, we still have a lot of work to do. But, with our recent progress, we now have a stronger foundation to create long-term value for all shareholders.”
NETWORK … In May, the Monro board of directors approved a plan to close 145 underperforming shops that failed to maintain an acceptable level of profitability, according to the company. These shops closed during the fiscal first quarter (the three months ended June 28, 2025).
As of Sept. 27, 2025, Monro had 1,116 company-operated shops located in 32 states as well as 47 Car-X franchised locations.
In a related move, the company also completed a field realignment during the quarter designed to “right-size and streamline” its field management following the closure of the 145 underperforming shops. “While this resulted in an overall reduction of district managers,” Fitzsimmons said on the call, “it has also resulted in an overall increase in the quality of district managers across our chain.”
He added: “We’ve also introduced a new district manager toolkit, which we believe will allow our district managers to better understand the input metrics and levers that drive store-level sales, attachments and gross margins.”
MARKETING … Fitzsimmons said the company worked to advance its acquisition marketing during the quarter by deploying digital marketing tools designed to reach its target audience: repeat purchasers who have visited Monro over a number of years and who choose the company because it provides the tires they want as well as the services that their vehicles need.
“We have increasingly activated our customer relationship management marketing to speak to our existing customers,” Fitzsimmons told analysts on the call. “Integrated into our marketing activities is the completion of a customer segmentation analysis that’s helping to augment our marketing efforts with further granularity on higher-value existing customers and potential customers — those who are expected to generate significantly more revenue and gross margin dollars than the average Monro guest.
“We have now ramped our refined targeting to almost 600 stores, and we’re encouraged to see that these stores are outperforming the balance of our store chain on several key metrics, such as call volume, store traffic, sales and gross profit dollar generation. And, while we won’t necessarily expand our marketing efforts to all stores, we do plan to ramp up and scale these efforts by the end of December.”
CALL CENTER … Fitzsimmons said more than 700 locations are now using a centralized call center to handle customer calls to schedule appointments. “This allows our store managers to focus more of their time on in-store activities without having the burden of answering each and every call that comes in,” he stated.
“In the more than 700 stores where our customer call center has already been implemented, we’re encouraged to see that these stores are outperforming the balance of our store chain on key metrics such as sales and gross profit dollar generation,” Fitzsimmons noted. “We plan to expand the rollout of our customer call center to all of our stores by early November.”
MERCHANDISING, TARIFFS & MORE … Fitzsimmons said Monro is working with its tire vendors to align on go-forward assortment opportunities intended to drive incremental sales for both parties.
“We’re now in the process of developing an updated tire assortment strategy that will resonate with our guests and position both Monro and our strategic supplier partners for growth,” he stated. “We’re encouraged by the level of vendor support we’re receiving on all tire tiers as well as with the enthusiasm of our suppliers to work with us. One area in which we have received additional support from vendors is with our fall promotions, which have helped us accelerate the sell-out of tire inventory.”
The company also is implementing new analytical tools for demand and inventory forecasting as well as for pricing.
“These tools will enable us to run a more dynamic sales and operations planning process and ensure our price positioning is appropriately competitive while maximizing margins,” Fitzsimmons said. “As a complement to these tools, during the second quarter, we augmented the capabilities of our existing merchandising team with the addition of two new colleagues who are helping to lead tire acquisition and product and service pricing.”
In terms of tariff impact, Fitzsimmons told analysts: “We continue to carefully manage the impact of tariffs on our overall product acquisition cost and on our market pricing. We’re also actively monitoring the impact of tariffs and other market conditions on actual and potential changes in tire mix as well as potential customer vehicle maintenance deferrals. Generally, we have been able to balance cost and price adjustments to enable us to maintain solid margins.”
Analysts with Jefferies LLC wrote in an Oct. 29 note that they believe Monro will continue to pull levers to drive comp sales through better customer service and higher service attachment rates. However, they remain cautious “as we expect an uncertain macro backdrop and potential deferral of high-ticket tire purchases could limit near-term improvements from the turnaround plan.” — Reporting by Marc Vincent, Editor
