Nov 4, 2005 9:20 AM, from staff and wire reports

Smart & Final Inc reported sales of $634.4 million for its 16-week fiscal third quarter ended Oct 9, 2005, an increase of $31.2 million, or 5.2%, over third quarter 2004 sales of $603.2 million. Third quarter 2005 comparable store sales rose by 3.3% over third quarter 2004.

Etienne Snollaerts, president and chief executive officer, said, “Our third quarter results reflect a continuing solid market position for our stores, with overall sales growth of more than 5%. Despite a strong, competitive environment, on a year-to-year basis we were able to increase both the number of customer transactions and average transaction amount in both of our store formats.”

Founded in 1871 in Los Angeles CA, Smart & Final operates 241 non-membership warehouse stores for food and foodservice supplies in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and northern Mexico.