Edgar Filing: DOLLAR TREE INC

10-K

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the Fiscal Year Ended January 30, 2016

Commission File No.: 0-25464

DOLLAR TREE, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)



Virginia	26-2018846
(State or other jurisdiction of	(I.R.S. Employer
incorporation or organization)	Identification No.)

500 Volvo Parkway, Chesapeake, VA 23320

(Address of principal executive offices)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (757) 321-5000



Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of Each Class	Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered
Common Stock (par value $.01 per share)	NASDAQ

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

(Title of Class)

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.



Yes (X)	No ( )

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act.



Yes ( )	No (X)

Indicate by check mark whether Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.



Yes (X)	No ( )

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate website, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).



Yes (X)	No ( )

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ( )

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.



Large accelerated filer (X)	Accelerated filer ( )
Non-accelerated filer ( )	Smaller reporting company ( )

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).



Yes ( )	No (X)

The aggregate market value of Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant on July 31, 2015, was $17,426,453,225, based on a $77.33 average of the high and low sales prices for the Common Stock on such date. For purposes of this computation, all executive officers and directors have been deemed to be affiliates. Such determination should not be deemed to be an admission that such executive officers and directors are, in fact, affiliates of the Registrant.

On March 23, 2016, there were 235,182,732 shares of the Registrant’s Common Stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

The information regarding securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans called for in Item 5 of Part II and the information called for in Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of Part III are incorporated by reference to the definitive Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of the Company to be held June 16, 2016, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than May 27, 2016.

DOLLAR TREE, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS



		Page
	PART I

Item 1.	BUSINESS	6

Item 1A.	RISK FACTORS	12

Item 1B.	UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS	17

Item 2.	PROPERTIES	18

Item 3.	LEGAL PROCEEDINGS	21

Item 4.	MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES	21

	PART II

Item 5.	MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED
	STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES	22

Item 6.	SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA	24

Item 7.	MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL
	CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS	26

Item 7A.	QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK	40

Item 8.	FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA	41

Item 9.	CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON
	ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE	76

Item 9A.	CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES	76

Item 9B.	OTHER INFORMATION	78

	PART III

Item 10.	DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE	78

Item 11.	EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION	78

Item 12.	SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
	AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS	78

Item 13.	CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS, RELATED TRANSACTIONS AND DIRECTOR
	INDEPENDENCE	78

Item 14.	PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES	78

	PART IV

Item 15.	EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES	78

	SIGNATURES	85

A WARNING ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This document contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements address future events, developments and results. They include statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "view," “target” or "estimate." For example, our forward-looking statements include statements regarding:


•	Family Dollar integration plans and expenses;


•	the benefits, results and effects of the Family Dollar acquisition and integration and the combined company’s plans, objectives, expectations (financial or otherwise), including synergies, the cost to achieve synergies and the effect on earnings per share;


•	the financial and operating performance of the divested stores;


•	the ability to retain key personnel at Family Dollar and Dollar Tree;


•	our anticipated sales, including comparable store net sales, net sales growth and earnings growth;


•	the outcome and costs of pending or potential litigation or governmental investigations;


•	our growth plans, including our plans to add, rebanner, expand or relocate stores, our anticipated square footage increase and our ability to renew leases at existing store locations;


•	the average size of our stores to be added in 2016 and beyond;


•	the effect on merchandise mix of consumables and the increase in the number of our stores with freezers and coolers on Dollar Tree's gross profit margin and sales;


•	the net sales per square foot, net sales and operating income of our stores;


•	the potential effect of inflation and other economic changes on our costs and profitability, including the potential effect of future changes in minimum wage rates, shipping rates, domestic and import freight costs, fuel costs and wage and benefit costs;


•	our gross profit margin, earnings, inventory levels and ability to leverage selling, general and administrative and other fixed costs;


•	our seasonal sales patterns including those relating to the length of the holiday selling seasons;


•	the capabilities of our inventory supply chain technology and other systems;


•	the reliability of, and cost associated with, our sources of supply, particularly imported goods such as those sourced from China;


•	the capacity, performance and cost of our distribution centers;


•	our cash needs, including our ability to fund our future capital expenditures and working capital requirements;


•	our expectations regarding competition and growth in our retail sector;


•	management's estimates associated with our critical accounting policies, including inventory valuation, accrued expenses, the Family Dollar purchase price allocation and income taxes;


•	the potential effect of future law changes, including qualification for exempt status under the Fair Labor Standards Act; and


•	costs expected to be incurred in 2016 for rebannering Deals stores.

For a discussion of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could affect our future events, developments or results, you should carefully review the risk factors described in "Item 1A. Risk Factors" beginning on page 12 of this Form 10-K, as well as "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" beginning on page 26 of this Form 10-K.

Our forward-looking statements could be wrong in light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions. The future events, developments or results described in this report could turn out to be materially different. We have no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements after the date of this annual report and you should not expect us to do so.

Investors should also be aware that while we do, from time to time, communicate with securities analysts and others, it is against our policy to selectively disclose to them any material, nonpublic information or other confidential commercial information. Accordingly, shareholders should not assume that we agree with any statement or report issued by any securities analyst regardless of the content of the statement or report as we have a policy against confirming information issued by others. Thus, to the extent that reports issued by securities analysts contain any projections, forecasts or opinions, such reports are not our responsibility.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, references to "we," "our" and "us" generally refer to Dollar Tree, Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries on a consolidated basis. Unless specifically indicated otherwise, any references to “2016” or “fiscal 2016”, “2015” or “fiscal 2015”, “2014” or “fiscal 2014”, and “2013” or “fiscal 2013”, relate to as of or for the years ended January 28, 2017, January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015 and February 1, 2014, respectively.

AVAILABLE INFORMATION

Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act are available free of charge on our website at www.dollartree.com as soon as reasonably practicable after electronic filing of such reports with the SEC.

PART I

Item 1. BUSINESS

Overview

We are a leading operator of discount variety stores. We believe the convenience and value we offer are key factors in growing our base of loyal customers. At January 30, 2016, we operated 13,851 discount variety retail stores. Our stores operate under the names of Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree Canada, Deals and Dollar Tree Deals.

On July 6, 2015, we completed our purchase of Family Dollar Stores, Inc. and its more than 8,200 stores. This transformational transaction created the largest discount retailer (by stores) in North America. The Dollar Tree and Family Dollar banners have complementary business models. Everything is $1.00 at Dollar Tree while Family Dollar is a neighborhood variety store offering merchandise largely for $10 or less. Also, on October 13, 2015, we announced our plans to convert all Deals and Dollar Tree Deals stores to one of our two primary banners, Dollar Tree or Family Dollar. On November 1, 2015, we completed the transaction pursuant to which we divested 330 Family Dollar stores, 325 of which were open at the time of the divestiture, to Dollar Express LLC, a portfolio company of Sycamore Partners, in order to satisfy a condition as required by the Federal Trade Commission in connection with our purchase of Family Dollar.

We operate in two reporting business segments: Dollar Tree and Family Dollar.

Dollar Tree

Our Dollar Tree segment is the leading operator of discount variety stores offering merchandise at the fixed price point of $1.00. The Dollar Tree segment includes 5,954 stores operating under the Dollar Tree, Dollar Tree Canada, Deals and Dollar Tree Deals brands, ten distribution centers in the United States and two in Canada and a Store Support Center in Chesapeake, Virginia. Our stores range from predominantly 8,000 - 10,000 selling square feet. In the Dollar Tree stores in the United States, we sell all items for $1.00 or less and in the Dollar Tree Canada stores, we sell all items for $1.25(CAD) or less. In our remaining stores, operating as Deals or Dollar Tree Deals, we sell items for $1.00 or less but also sell items for more than $1.00. Our revenue and assets in Canada are not material.

We strive to exceed our customers' expectations of the variety and quality of products that they can purchase for $1.00 by offering items that we believe typically sell for higher prices elsewhere. We buy approximately 57% to 59% of our merchandise domestically and import the remaining 41% to 43%. Our domestic purchases include basic, seasonal, home, closeouts and promotional merchandise. We believe our mix of imported and domestic merchandise affords our buyers flexibility that allows them to consistently exceed the customer's expectations. In addition, direct relationships with manufacturers permit us to select from a broad range of products and customize packaging, product sizes and package quantities that meet our customers' needs.

All of our Dollar Tree stores in the United States accept cash, checks, debit cards and credit cards. We added freezers and coolers to certain stores and increased the amount of consumable merchandise carried by those stores. We believe this initiative helps drive additional transactions and allows us to appeal to a broader demographic mix. We added freezers and coolers to 665 additional stores in 2015. As of January 30, 2016, we have freezers and coolers in 4,285 of our Dollar Tree stores. We plan to install them in 400 additional stores by the end of fiscal 2016. Along with the rollout of freezers and coolers, we have increased the number of stores accepting Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards and food stamps (under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”)) to approximately 5,600 stores as of January 30, 2016.

At any point in time, we carry approximately 7,100 items in our stores and as of the end of 2015 approximately 35% of our items are automatically replenished. The remaining items are pushed to the stores and a portion can be reordered by our store managers on a weekly basis. Through automatic replenishment and our store managers’ ability to order product, each store manager is able to satisfy the demands of his or her particular customer base.

We maintain a balanced selection of products within traditional variety store categories. We offer a wide selection of everyday basic products and we supplement these basic, everyday items with seasonal, closeout and promotional merchandise. We attempt to keep certain basic consumable merchandise in our stores continuously to establish our stores as a destination and increase the traffic in our stores. Closeout and promotional merchandise is purchased opportunistically and represents less than 10% of our purchases.

Our merchandise mix in our Dollar Tree stores consists of:

•consumable merchandise, which includes candy and food, health and beauty care, and everyday consumables such as

household paper and chemicals, and in select stores, frozen and refrigerated food;


•	variety merchandise, which includes toys, durable housewares, gifts, stationery, party goods, greeting cards, softlines, and other items; and

•seasonal goods, which include, among others, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween and Christmas merchandise.

The following table shows the percentage of net sales of each major product group for the years ended January 30, 2016 and January 31, 2015:



	January 30,		January 31,
Merchandise Type	2016		2015
Consumable	49.1	%	49.3	%
Variety categories	46.4	%	46.4	%
Seasonal	4.5	%	4.3	%

Family Dollar

Our Family Dollar segment operates general merchandise discount retail stores providing consumers with a selection of competitively-priced merchandise in convenient neighborhood stores. The Family Dollar segment consists of our operations under the Family Dollar brand, eleven distribution centers and a Store Support Center in Matthews, North Carolina. Our stores range from predominantly 6,000 - 8,000 selling square feet. In our 7,897 Family Dollar stores, we sell merchandise at prices that generally range from $1.00 to $10.00.

Our Family Dollar stores provide customers with a quality, high-value assortment of basic necessities and seasonal merchandise. We offer competitively-priced national brands from leading manufacturers alongside name brand equivalent-value priced private labels. We purchase merchandise from a wide variety of suppliers and generally have not experienced difficulty in obtaining adequate quantities of merchandise. In the period from July 6, 2015 through January 30, 2016, we purchased approximately 16% of our merchandise through our partnership with McLane Company, Inc., which distributes consumable merchandise from multiple manufacturers and approximately 23% of our merchandise is imported.

While the number of items in a given store can vary based on the store’s size, geographic location, merchandising initiatives and other factors, our typical store generally carries 7,000 basic items alongside items that are ever-changing and seasonally-relevant throughout the year.

Our merchandise mix in our Family Dollar stores consists of:

•consumable merchandise, which includes food, tobacco, health and beauty aids, household chemicals, paper

products, hardware and automotive supplies, diapers, batteries, and pet food and supplies;

•home products, which includes housewares, home décor, giftware, and domestics, including blankets, sheets and

towels;

•apparel and accessories merchandise, which includes clothing, fashion accessories and shoes; and

•seasonal and electronics merchandise, which includes Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween and Christmas merchandise,

personal electronics, including pre-paid cellular phones and services, stationery and school supplies, and toys.

The following table shows the percentage of net sales of each major product group for the period from July 6, 2015 through January 30, 2016:



	January 30,
Merchandise Type	2016
Consumable	68.4	%
Home products	9.8	%
Apparel and accessories	6.8	%
Seasonal and electronics	15.0	%

Business Strategy

Continue to execute our proven and best‑in‑class retail business strategy. We will continue to execute our proven strategies that have generated a history of success and consistent growth for the Company. Key elements of our strategy include:

•continuously aiming to “Wow” the customer with a compelling, fun and fresh merchandise assortment comprising a

variety of the things you want and things you need, all at incredible values in bright, clean and friendly stores;

•maintaining a flexible sourcing merchandise model that allows a variety of products to be sold as long as desired

merchandise margin hurdles are met;


•	growing both the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar banners;

•pursuing a “more, better, faster” approach to the rollout of new Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores to broaden our

geographic footprint;


•	maintaining customer relevance by ensuring that we reinvent ourselves constantly through new merchandise categories;


•	leveraging the complementary merchandise expertise of each banner including Dollar Tree's sourcing and product development expertise and Family Dollar's consumer package goods and national brands sourcing expertise; and

•maintaining a prudent approach with our use of capital for the benefit of our shareholders.

Operate a diversified and complementary business model across both fixed‑price and multi‑price point strategies. We plan to operate and grow both the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar banners. We will utilize the reach and scale of our combined company to serve a broader range of customers in more ways, offering better prices and more value for the customer. Dollar Tree stores will continue to operate as single price point retail stores. At Dollar Tree, everything is $1.00, offering the customer a balanced mix of things they need and things they want. Our shopping experience will remain fun and friendly as we exceed our customers’ expectations for what they can buy for $1.00. Dollar Tree targets middle income customers in suburban locations. Family Dollar stores will continue to operate using multiple price points, serving customers as their “neighborhood discount store,” offering great values on everyday items and a convenient shopping experience. Family Dollar targets a lower income customer in urban and rural locations. We will benefit from an expanded target customer profile and utilize the store concepts of both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar to serve a broader range of customer demographics to drive further improvements in sales and profitability.

Deliver significant synergy opportunities through integration of Family Dollar. Our recent acquisition of Family Dollar will provide us with significant opportunities to achieve meaningful cost synergies. We are executing a detailed integration plan and expect to generate approximately $300 million of estimated run‑rate annual cost synergies by the end of the third full year following the consummation of the acquisition across the areas of:

•sourcing and procurement, through driving scale with common vendors, increasing direct factory sourcing and

reducing usage of domestic importers;

•format optimization, through the re‑bannering of select Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores to match the banner to

the customer and tailoring merchandise offerings within existing stores to match local customer tastes;

•distribution and logistics, by reducing inbound and outbound freight costs (domestic and international) and optimizing

efficiency within our combined distribution center network; and

•overhead, through the reduction of shared services costs and redundant public company and Board costs.

Take advantage of significant white-space opportunity. Over the past decade we have built a solid and scalable infrastructure, which provides a strong foundation for our future growth. We are committed to growing our combined business to take advantage of significant white space opportunities that we believe exist for both the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar store concepts. Using our proven real estate strategy across our combined business, we intend to drive future store openings by capitalizing on data‑driven insights regarding location, target customer profile, competitive dynamics and cost structure. Over the long-term, we believe that we can operate more than 7,000 Dollar Tree stores and 12,000 Family Dollar stores across the United States.

Convenient Locations and Store Size. We primarily focus on opening new Dollar Tree stores in strip shopping centers anchored by large retailers who draw target customers we believe to be similar to ours. Our stores are successful in metropolitan areas, mid-sized cities and small towns. The range of our store sizes, 8,000 - 10,000 selling square feet for Dollar Tree and 6,000 - 8,000 selling square feet for Family Dollar, allows us to target a particular location with a store that best suits that market and takes advantage of available real estate opportunities. Our stores are attractively designed and create an inviting atmosphere for shoppers by using bright lighting, vibrant colors and decorative signs. We enhance the store design with attractive merchandise displays. We believe this design attracts new and repeat customers and enhances our image as both a destination and impulse purchase store.

We open new Family Dollar stores in strip shopping centers, freestanding buildings and downtown buildings. The range of size of our Family Dollar stores allows us to select store locations in neighborhoods convenient to our customers in each of these market areas.

For more information on retail locations and retail store leases, see "Item 2. Properties" beginning on page 18 of this Form 10-K.

Profitable Stores with Strong Cash Flow. We maintain a disciplined, cost-sensitive approach to store site selection in order to minimize the initial capital investment required and maximize our potential to generate high operating margins and strong cash flows. We believe that our stores have a relatively small shopping radius, which allows us to profitably concentrate multiple stores within a single market. Our ability to open new stores is dependent upon, among other factors, locating suitable sites and negotiating favorable lease terms.

The strong cash flows generated by our stores allow us to self-fund infrastructure investment and new stores. Over the past five years, cash flows from operating activities have exceeded capital expenditures.

For more information on our results of operations, see "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" beginning on page 26 of this Form 10-K.

Cost Control. We believe that our substantial buying power and our flexibility in making sourcing decisions contributes to our successful purchasing strategy, which includes targeted merchandise margin goals by category. We also believe our ability to select quality merchandise helps to minimize markdowns. We buy products on an order-by-order basis and have no material long-term purchase contracts or other assurances of continued product supply or guaranteed product cost. No vendor accounted for more than 10% of total merchandise purchased in any of the past five years.

Our supply chain systems continue to provide us with valuable sales information to assist our buyers and improve merchandise allocation to our stores. Controlling our inventory levels has resulted in more efficient distribution and store operations.

Information Systems. We believe that investments in technology help us to increase sales and control costs. Our inventory management system has allowed us to improve the efficiency of our supply chain, improve merchandise flow, increase inventory turnover and control distribution and store operating costs. It is also used to provide information to calculate our estimate of inventory cost under the retail inventory method, which is widely used in the retail industry. Our automatic replenishment system replenishes key items, based on actual store-level sales and inventory.

Point-of-sale data allows us to track sales and inventory by merchandise category at the store level and assists us in planning for future purchases of inventory. We believe that this information allows us to ship the appropriate product to stores at the quantities commensurate with selling patterns. Using this point-of-sale data to plan purchases of inventory has helped us manage our inventory levels.

Corporate Culture and Values. We believe that honesty and integrity, and treating people fairly and with respect are core values within our corporate culture. We believe that running a business, and certainly a public company, carries with it a responsibility to be above reproach when making operational and financial decisions. Our executive management team visits

and shops at our stores like every customer, and ideas and individual creativity on the part of our associates are encouraged, particularly from our store managers who know their stores and their customers. We have standards for store displays, merchandise presentation, and store operations. We maintain an open door policy for all associates. Our distribution centers are operated based on objective measures of performance and virtually everyone in our store support centers is available to assist associates in the stores and distribution centers.

Our disclosure committee meets at least quarterly and monitors our internal controls over financial reporting to ensure that our public filings contain discussions about the risks our business faces. We believe that we have the controls in place to be able to certify our financial statements. Additionally, we have complied with the listing requirements for the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Seasonality. For information on the impact of seasonality, see "Item 1A. Risk Factors" beginning on page 12 of this Form 10-K and "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" beginning on page 26 of this Form 10-K.

Growth Strategy

Store Openings and Square Footage Growth. The primary factors contributing to our net sales growth have been new store openings, an active store expansion and remodel program, and selective mergers and acquisitions. In the last five years, net sales increased at a compound annual growth rate of 23.6%, including the addition of Family Dollar. We expect that the majority of our future sales growth will come primarily from new store openings in our Dollar Tree and Family Dollar banners and from our store expansion and relocation program.

At January 28, 2012, we operated 4,351 stores in the United States and Canada. At January 30, 2016, we operated 13,626 stores in 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 225 stores in Canada. Our selling square footage increased from approximately 37.6 million square feet in January 2012 to 108.4 million square feet in January 2016. Our store growth has resulted from opening new stores and our July 2015 acquisition of more than 8,200 Family Dollar stores.

The following table shows the average selling square footage of our stores and the selling square footage per new store opened over the last five years. Our growth and productivity statistics are reported based on selling square footage because our management believes the use of selling square footage yields a more accurate measure of store productivity.



Year	Number of Stores	Average Selling Square Footage Per Store	Average Selling Square Footage Per New Store Opened
2011	4,351	8,640	8,360
2012	4,671	8,660	8,060
2013	4,992	8,660	8,020
2014	5,367	8,660	8,060
2015	13,851	7,820	7,730

We expect to increase the selling square footage in our stores in the future by opening new stores in underserved markets and strategically increasing our presence in our existing markets via new store openings and store expansions (expansions include store relocations). In fiscal 2016 and beyond, we plan to predominantly open Dollar Tree stores that are approximately 8,000 - 10,000 selling square feet and Family Dollar stores that are approximately 6,000 - 8,000 selling square feet. We believe these store sizes allow us to achieve our objectives in the markets in which we plan to expand.

In addition to new store openings, we plan to continue our Dollar Tree store expansion program to increase our net sales per store and take advantage of market opportunities. We target stores for expansion based on the current sales per selling square foot and changes in market opportunities. Stores targeted for expansion are generally less than 6,000 selling square feet in size. Store expansions generally increase the existing store size by approximately 2,750 selling square feet. At January 30, 2016, approximately 3,243 of our Dollar Tree stores, totaling 63% of our Dollar Tree banner selling square footage, were 8,000 selling square feet or larger.

Since 1995, we have added a total of 695 stores through several mergers and acquisitions, excluding our acquisition of Family Dollar. Our acquisition strategy has been to target companies that have a similar single-price point concept that have shown success in operations or companies that provide a strategic advantage. We evaluate potential acquisition opportunities as they become available. On July 6, 2015, we completed our acquisition of Family Dollar which allowed us to create a diversified company with complementary business models. See "Note 2 - Acquisition" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” beginning on page 53 of this Form 10-K.

From time to time, we also acquire the rights to store leases through bankruptcy or other proceedings. We will continue to take advantage of these opportunities as they arise depending upon several factors including their fit within our location and selling square footage size parameters.

Merchandising and Distribution. Expanding our customer base is important to our growth plans. We plan to continue to stock our stores with a compelling mix of ever-changing merchandise that our customers have come to appreciate. Consumable merchandise typically leads to more frequent return trips to our stores resulting in increased sales. The presentation and display of merchandise in our stores are critical to communicating value to our customers and creating a more exciting shopping experience. We believe our approach to visual merchandising results in higher sales volume and an environment that encourages impulse purchases.

A strong and efficient distribution network is critical to our ability to grow and to maintain a low-cost operating structure. In 2015, we began construction on our Cherokee County, South Carolina distribution center, which will be 1.5 million square feet and fully automated. We expect this facility to be operational in the third quarter of 2016. In addition, we are expanding our Stockton, California distribution center by 0.3 million square feet. We expect this project to be completed during the second quarter of 2016. In 2014, we expanded our Joliet, Illinois distribution center to 1.5 million square feet. We are also in the process of enabling our distribution centers to ship merchandise to both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores. We expect our first pilot facility to be operational in the third quarter of 2016. We believe our distribution center network is currently capable of supporting approximately $24.1 billion in annual sales in the United States. New distribution sites are strategically located to reduce stem miles, maintain flexibility and improve efficiency in our store service areas. We also are a party to an agreement which provides distribution services from two facilities in Canada.

Our Dollar Tree stores receive approximately 90% of their inventory from our distribution centers via contract carriers and our Family Dollar stores receive approximately 72% of their inventory from our distribution centers. The remaining store inventory, primarily perishable consumable items and other vendor-maintained display items, are delivered directly to our stores from vendors. Our Family Dollar stores receive approximately 16% of their merchandise from McLane Company, Inc. For more information on our distribution center network, see "Item 2. Properties" beginning on page 18 of this Form 10-K.

Competition

Our segment of the retail industry is highly competitive and we expect competition to increase in the future. We operate in the discount retail business, which is currently and is expected to continue to be highly competitive with respect to price, store location, merchandise quality, assortment and presentation and customer service. Our competitors include single-price dollar stores, multi-price dollar stores, mass merchandisers, discount retailers, drug stores, convenience stores, independently-operated discount stores, and a wide variety of other retailers. In addition, several competitors have sections within their stores devoted to "one dollar" price point merchandise, which further increases competition. We believe we differentiate ourselves from other retailers by providing high-value, high-quality, low-cost merchandise in attractively-designed stores that are conveniently located. Our sales and profits could be reduced by increases in competition. There are no significant economic barriers for others to enter our retail sector.

Trademarks

We are the owners of several federal service mark registrations including "Dollar Tree," the "Dollar Tree" logo, the Dollar Tree logo with a “1” and "One Price...One Dollar." In addition, we own a concurrent use registration for "Dollar Bill$" and the related logo. We also acquired the rights to use trade names previously owned by Everything's A Dollar, a former competitor in the $1.00 price point industry. Several trade names were included in the purchase, including the marks "Everything's $1.00 We Mean Everything!" and "Everything's $1.00." With the acquisition of Deals, we became the owners of the trademark "Deal$.” With the acquisition of Dollar Giant, we became the owners of the trademark “Dollar Giant” and others in Canada. With the acquisition of Family Dollar, we became the owners of the trademarks "Family Dollar," "Family Dollar Stores" and other names and designs of certain merchandise sold in Family Dollar stores, such as "Family Gourmet," "Family Pet," "Kidgets" and "Outdoors by Design." We have federal trademark registrations for a variety of private labels that we use to market some of our product lines. Our trademark registrations have various expiration dates; however, assuming that the trademark registrations are properly renewed, they have a perpetual duration.

Employees

We employed approximately 55,300 full-time and 112,500 part-time associates on January 30, 2016. Part-time associates work an average of less than 30 hours per week. The number of part-time associates fluctuates depending on seasonal needs. We consider our relationship with our associates to be good, and we have not experienced significant interruptions of operations due to labor disagreements.

Item 1A. RISK FACTORS

An investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Any failure to meet market expectations, including our comparable store sales growth rate, earnings and earnings per share or new store openings, could cause the market price of our stock to decline. You should carefully consider the specific risk factors listed below together with all other information included or incorporated in this report. Any of the following risks may materialize, and additional risks not known to us, or that we now deem immaterial, may arise. In such event, our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects could be materially adversely affected.

Our profitability is vulnerable to cost increases.

Future increases in costs such as the cost of merchandise, wage and benefit costs, merchandise loss (due to theft, damage, or errors), shipping rates, freight costs, fuel costs and store occupancy costs may reduce our profitability. The minimum wage has increased or is scheduled to increase in multiple states and local jurisdictions and there is a possibility that Congress will increase the federal minimum wage. The Department of Labor is expected to issue regulations this year that may result in fewer of our associates being exempt from overtime pay requirements. In our Dollar Tree segment, we do not raise the sales price of our merchandise to offset cost increases because we are committed to selling primarily at the $1.00 price point to continue to provide value to the customer. We are dependent on our ability to adjust our product assortment, to operate more efficiently or to increase our comparable store net sales in order to offset inflation or other cost increases. We can give no assurance that we will be able to operate more efficiently or increase our comparable store net sales in the future. Although Family Dollar, unlike Dollar Tree, can raise the price of merchandise, customers may buy fewer products because of a higher price. Please see "Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" beginning on page 26 of this Form 10-K for further discussion of the effect of Inflation and Other Economic Factors on our operations.

Integrating Family Dollar’s operations with ours may be more difficult, costly or time consuming than expected and the anticipated benefits, synergies and cost savings of the Acquisition may not be realized.

The success of the Family Dollar acquisition (the “Acquisition”), including anticipated benefits, synergies and cost savings, will depend, in part, on our ability to successfully combine and integrate the businesses and cultures of the Family Dollar segment into our company. It is possible that the integration process will take longer than anticipated, and could result in the loss of key employees, higher than expected costs (including costs incurred with respect to the divested stores and related services), ongoing diversion of management attention, increased competition, the disruption of our ongoing businesses or inconsistencies in standards, controls, procedures and policies that adversely affect our ability to maintain relationships with customers, vendors and employees. If we experience difficulties with the integration process, the anticipated benefits of the Acquisition may not be realized fully or at all, or may take longer to realize than expected. In addition, the actual cost savings of the Acquisition could be less than anticipated.

A downturn in economic conditions could impact our sales.

Deterioration in economic conditions, such as those caused by a recession, inflation, higher unemployment, consumer debt levels, cost increases, as well as adverse weather conditions or terrorism, could reduce consumer spending or cause customers to shift their spending to products we either do not sell or do not sell as profitably. Adverse economic conditions could disrupt consumer spending and significantly reduce our sales, decrease our inventory turnover, cause greater markdowns or reduce our profitability due to lower margins.

A significant disruption in our computer and technology systems could adversely affect our results of operation or business.

We rely extensively on our computer and technology systems to manage inventory, process credit card and customer transactions and summarize results. Systems may be subject to damage or interruption from power outages, telecommunication failures, computer viruses, security breaches and catastrophic events. If our systems are damaged or fail to function properly, we may incur substantial costs to repair or replace them, may experience loss of critical data and interruptions or delays in our ability to manage inventories or process customer transactions and may receive negative publicity, which could adversely affect our results of operation or business.

If we are unable to secure our customers’ credit card and confidential information, or other private data relating to our associates, suppliers or our business, we could be subject to negative publicity, costly government enforcement actions or private litigation, which could damage our business reputation and adversely affect our results of operation or business.

We have procedures and technology in place to safeguard our customers’ debit and credit card information, our associates’ private data, suppliers’ data, and our business records and intellectual property. Despite these measures, criminals are constantly devising schemes to circumvent safeguards and we may be vulnerable to, and unable to detect and appropriately respond to, data security breaches and data loss, including cyber-security attacks. Other sophisticated retailers have recently suffered serious security breaches. If we experience a data security breach, we could be exposed to negative publicity, government enforcement actions, private litigation, or costly response measures. In addition, our reputation within the business community and with our customers may be affected, which could result in our customers discontinuing the use of debit or credit cards in our stores or not shopping in our stores altogether. This could have an adverse effect on our results of operation or business.

Our growth is dependent on our ability to increase sales in existing stores and to expand our square footage profitably.

Existing store sales growth is critical to good operating results and is dependent on a variety of factors including merchandise quality, relevance and availability, store operations and customer satisfaction. In addition, increased competition could adversely affect our sales. Our highest sales periods are during the Christmas and Easter seasons, and we generally realize a disproportionate amount of our net sales and our operating and net income during the fourth quarter. In anticipation, we stock extra inventory and hire many temporary employees to prepare our stores. A reduction in sales during these periods could adversely affect our operating results, particularly operating and net income, to a greater extent than if a reduction occurred at other times of the year. Untimely merchandise delays due to receiving or distribution problems could have a similar effect. When Easter is observed earlier in the year, the selling season is shorter and, as a result, our sales could be adversely affected. Easter was observed on April 20, 2014, April 5, 2015, and will be observed on March 27, 2016.

Expanding our square footage profitably depends on a number of uncertainties, including our ability to locate, lease, build out and open or expand stores in suitable locations on a timely basis under favorable economic terms. Obtaining an increasing number of profitable stores is an ever increasing challenge. In addition, our expansion is dependent upon third-party developers’ abilities to acquire land, obtain financing, and secure necessary permits and approvals. It remains difficult for third party developers to obtain financing for new projects due to the recent turmoil in the financial markets. We also open or expand stores within our established geographic markets, where new or expanded stores may draw sales away from our existing stores. We may not manage our expansion effectively, and our failure to achieve our expansion plans could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks associated with our domestic and foreign suppliers from whom our products are sourced could affect our financial performance.

We are dependent on our vendors to supply merchandise in a timely and efficient manner. If a vendor fails to deliver on its commitments due to financial or other difficulties, we could experience merchandise shortages which could lead to lost sales or increased merchandise costs if alternative sources must be used.

Merchandise imported directly accounts for approximately 41% to 43% of our Dollar Tree segment's total retail value purchases and 22% to 24% of our Family Dollar segment's total retail value purchases. In addition, we believe that a portion of our goods purchased from domestic vendors is imported. China is the source of a substantial majority of our imports. Imported goods are generally less expensive than domestic goods and increase our profit margins. A disruption in the flow of our imported merchandise or an increase in the cost of those goods may significantly decrease our profits. Risks associated with our reliance on imported goods may include disruptions in the flow of or increases in the cost of imported goods because of factors such as:

•raw material shortages, work stoppages, strikes and political unrest;

•an increase in duties or tariffs;

•economic crises and international disputes;

•changes in currency exchange rates or policies and local economic conditions, including inflation in the country of

origin; and

•failure of the United States to maintain normal trade relations with China.

We could encounter disruptions in our distribution network or additional costs in distributing merchandise.

Our success is dependent on our ability to transport merchandise to our distribution centers and then ship it to our stores in a timely and cost-effective manner. We may not anticipate, respond to or control all of the challenges of operating our receiving and distribution systems. Additionally, if a vendor fails to deliver on its commitments, we could experience merchandise shortages that could lead to lost sales or increased costs. Some of the factors that could have an adverse effect on our distribution network or costs are:

•Shipping disruption. Our oceanic shipping schedules may be disrupted or delayed from time to time.

•Shipping costs. We could experience increases in shipping rates imposed by the trans-Pacific ocean carriers. Changes

in import duties, import quotas and other trade sanctions could increase our costs.

•Efficient Operations. Distribution centers and other aspects of our distribution network are difficult to operate

efficiently and we could experience a reduction in operating efficiency.

•Diesel fuel costs. We have experienced volatility in diesel fuel costs over the past few years.

•Vulnerability to natural or man-made disasters. A fire, explosion or natural disaster at a port or any of our distribution

facilities could result in a loss of merchandise and impair our ability to adequately stock our stores. Some facilities are

vulnerable to earthquakes, hurricanes or tornadoes.

•Labor disagreement. Labor disagreements, disruptions or strikes may result in delays in the delivery of merchandise

to our distribution centers or stores and increase costs.

•War, terrorism and other events. War and acts of terrorism in the United States, the Middle East, or in China or other

parts of Asia, where we buy a significant amount of our imported merchandise, could disrupt our supply chain or

increase our transportation costs.

•Economic conditions. Suppliers may encounter financial or other difficulties.

Our profitability is affected by the mix of products we sell.

Our gross profit margin could decrease if we increase the proportion of higher cost goods we sell in the future. In recent years, the percentage of our sales from higher cost consumable products has increased and we can give no assurance that this trend will not continue. As a result, our gross profit margin could decrease unless we are able to maintain our current merchandise cost sufficiently to offset any decrease in our product margin percentage. We can give no assurance that we will be able to do so.

In our Family Dollar segment, our success also depends on our ability to select and obtain sufficient quantities of relevant merchandise at prices that allow us to sell such merchandise at profitable and appropriate prices. A sales price that is too high causes products to be less attractive to our customers and our sales at Family Dollar could suffer. We are continuing to implement our everyday low price strategy at Family Dollar to drive customer loyalty and have a strategic pricing team to improve our value and to increase profitability. Inability to successfully implement our pricing strategies at Family Dollar could have a negative effect on our business.

In addition, our Family Dollar segment has a substantial number of private brand items and the number of items has been increasing. We believe our success in maintaining broad market acceptance of our private brands depends on many factors, including our pricing, costs, quality and customer perception. We may not achieve or maintain our expected sales for our private brands and, as a result, our business and results of operations could be adversely impacted. Additionally, the increased number of private brands could negatively impact our existing relationships with our non-private brand suppliers.

Pressure from competitors may reduce our sales and profits.

The retail industry is highly competitive. The marketplace is highly fragmented as many different retailers compete for market share by utilizing a variety of store formats and merchandising strategies. We expect competition to increase in the future. There are no significant economic barriers for others to enter our retail sector. Some of our current or potential competitors have greater financial resources than we do. We cannot guarantee that we will continue to be able to compete successfully against existing or future competitors. Please see "Item 1. Business" beginning on page 6 of this Form 10-K for further discussion of the effect of competition on our operations.

Litigation may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is subject to the risk of litigation involving employees, consumers, suppliers, competitors, shareholders, government agencies, or others through private actions, class actions, governmental investigations, administrative proceedings, regulatory actions or other litigation. Our products could also cause illness or injury, harm our reputation, and subject us to litigation. For example, we are currently defendants in national and state employment-related class and collective actions, litigation concerning injury from products and a governmental investigation by the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

The outcome of litigation is difficult to assess or quantify. Plaintiffs in these types of lawsuits or proceedings may seek recovery of very large or indeterminate amounts, and the magnitude of the potential loss may remain unknown for substantial periods of time. In addition, certain of these matters, if decided adversely to us or settled by us, may result in an expense that may be material to our financial statements as a whole or may negatively affect our operating results if changes to our business operation are required. The cost to defend current and future litigation or proceedings may be significant. There also may be adverse publicity associated with litigation, including litigation related to product or food safety, customer information and environmental or safety requirements, which could negatively affect customer perception of our business, regardless of whether the allegations are valid or whether we are ultimately found liable.

For a discussion of current legal matters, please see "Item 3. Legal Proceedings" beginning on page 21 of this Form 10-K and "Note 5 - Commitments and Contingencies" under the caption "Contingencies" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" beginning on page 59 of this Form 10-K. Resolution of these matters, if decided against the Company, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, accrued liabilities or cash flows.

Changes in federal, state or local law, or our failure to comply with such laws, could increase our expenses and expose us to legal risks.

Our business is subject to a wide array of laws and regulations. The Department of Labor is expected to issue regulations this year that may result in fewer of our associates being exempt from overtime pay requirements. The minimum wage has increased or is scheduled to increase in multiple states and local jurisdictions and there is a possibility that Congress will increase the federal minimum wage. Significant legislative changes, such as the health-care legislation, that impact our relationship with our workforce could increase our expenses and adversely affect our operations. Changes in other regulatory areas, such as consumer credit, privacy and information security, product and food safety, worker safety or environmental protection, among others, could cause our expenses to increase or product recalls. In addition, if we fail to comply with applicable laws and regulations, particularly wage and hour laws, we could be subject to legal risk, including government enforcement action and class action civil litigation, which could adversely affect our results of operations. Changes in tax laws, the interpretation of existing laws, or our failure to sustain our reporting positions on examination could adversely affect our effective tax rate.

Our business could be adversely affected if we fail to attract and retain qualified associates and key personnel.

Our growth and performance is dependent on the skills, experience and contributions of our associates, executives and key personnel. Various factors, including our recent merger, overall labor availability, wage rates, regulatory or legislative impacts, and benefit costs could impact our ability to attract and retain qualified associates at our stores, distribution centers and corporate offices.

Certain provisions in our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws could delay or discourage a change of control transaction that may be in a shareholder’s best interest.

Our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws currently contain provisions that may delay or discourage a takeover attempt that a shareholder might consider in his best interest. These provisions, among other things:

•provide that only the Board of Directors, chairman or president may call special meetings of the shareholders;

•establish certain advance notice procedures for nominations of candidates for election as directors and for shareholder

proposals to be considered at shareholders’ meetings; and

•permit the Board of Directors, without further action of the shareholders, to issue and fix the terms of preferred stock,

which may have rights senior to those of the common stock.

However, we believe that these provisions allow our Board of Directors to negotiate a higher price in the event of a takeover attempt which would be in the best interest of our shareholders.

Our substantial indebtedness could adversely affect our financial condition, limit our ability to obtain additional financing, restrict our operations and make us more vulnerable to economic downturns and competitive pressures.

In connection with the Acquisition, we substantially increased our indebtedness, which could adversely affect our ability to fulfill our obligations and have a negative impact on our financing options and liquidity position. As of January 30, 2016, our total indebtedness is $7,465.5 million. In addition, we have $1,250.0 million of additional borrowing availability under our new revolving credit facility, less amounts outstanding for letters of credit totaling $123.0 million.

Our high level of debt could have significant consequences, including the following:

•limiting our ability to obtain additional financing in the future for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or

other general corporate purposes;

•requiring a substantial portion of our cash flows to be dedicated to debt service payments, instead of other purposes,

thereby reducing the amount of cash flows available for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;

•limiting our ability to refinance our indebtedness on terms acceptable to us or at all;

•imposing restrictive covenants on our operations;

•placing us at a competitive disadvantage to competitors carrying less debt; and

•making us more vulnerable to economic downturns and limiting our ability to withstand competitive pressures.

In addition, our credit ratings impact the cost and availability of future borrowings and, accordingly, our cost of capital. Our ratings reflect the opinions of the ratings agencies of our financial strength, operating performance and ability to meet our debt obligations. There can be no assurance that we will achieve a particular rating or maintain a particular rating in the future.

We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.

Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations depends on our financial condition and operating performance, which are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business, legislative, regulatory and other factors beyond our control. We may be unable to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to fund our day-to-day operations or to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness.

If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations and other cash requirements, we could face substantial liquidity problems and could be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures or to sell assets or operations, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. We may not be able to effect any such alternative measures, if necessary, on commercially reasonable terms or at all and, even if successful, such alternative actions may not allow us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations. The agreements that govern our indebtedness restrict (a) our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from any such dispositions and (b) our ability to raise debt capital to be used to repay our indebtedness when it becomes due. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to obtain proceeds in an amount sufficient to meet any debt service obligations then due.

Our inability to generate sufficient cash flows to satisfy our debt obligations, or to refinance our indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all, would materially and adversely affect our financial position and results of operations and our ability to satisfy our obligations.

If we cannot make scheduled payments on our debt, we will be in default and, as a result, holders of the notes (and lenders under any of our existing and future indebtedness) could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable, the lenders under the credit facilities could terminate their commitments to loan money, our secured lenders could foreclose against the assets securing such borrowings and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation, in each case, which could result in your losing your investment.

The terms of the agreements governing our indebtedness may restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to changes or to pursue our business strategies, and could adversely affect our capital resources, financial condition and liquidity.

The agreements that govern our indebtedness contain a number of restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and may limit our ability to engage in acts that may be in our long-term best interests, including, among other things, restrictions on our ability to:

•incur, assume or guarantee additional indebtedness;

•declare or pay dividends or make other distributions with respect to, or purchase or otherwise acquire or retire for

value, equity interests;

•make principal payments on, or redeem or repurchase, subordinated debt;

•make loans, advances or other investments;

•incur liens;

•sell or otherwise dispose of assets, including capital stock of subsidiaries;

•enter into sale and lease-back transactions;

•consolidate or merge with or into, or sell all or substantially all of our assets to, another person; and

•enter into transactions with affiliates.

In addition, certain of these agreements require us to comply with certain financial maintenance covenants. Our ability to satisfy these financial maintenance covenants can be affected by events beyond our control, and we cannot assure you that we will meet them.

A breach of the covenants under these agreements could result in an event of default under the applicable indebtedness, which, if not cured or waived, could result in us having to repay our borrowings before their due dates. Such default may allow the debt holders to accelerate the related debt and may result in the acceleration of any other debt to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. If we are forced to refinance these borrowings on less favorable terms or if we were to experience difficulty in refinancing the debt prior to maturity, our results of operations or financial condition could be materially affected. In addition, an event of default under our credit facilities may permit the lenders under our credit facilities to terminate all commitments to extend further credit under such credit facilities. Furthermore, if we are unable to repay the amounts due and payable under our credit facilities, those lenders may be able to proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness. In the event our lenders or holders of notes accelerate the repayment of such borrowings, we cannot assure you that we will have sufficient assets to repay such indebtedness.

As a result of these restrictions, we may be:

•limited in how we conduct our business;

•unable to raise additional debt or equity financing to operate during general economic or business downturns; or

•unable to compete effectively, take advantage of new business opportunities or grow in accordance with our plans.

Our variable-rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our annual debt service obligations to increase significantly.

Certain of our indebtedness, including borrowings under our new revolving credit facility, is subject to variable rates of interest and exposes us to interest rate risk. If interest rates increase, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness would increase even though the amount borrowed remained the same, and our net income would decrease. An increase (decrease) of 1.0% on the interest rate would result in an increase (decrease) of $25.2 million in annual interest expense. Although we may enter into interest rate swaps, involving the exchange of floating- for fixed-rate interest payments, to reduce interest rate volatility, we cannot assure you we will be able to do so.

Item 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

Item 2. PROPERTIES

Stores

As of January 30, 2016, we operated 13,851 stores in 48 states and the District of Columbia, and five Canadian provinces as detailed below:



United States	Dollar Tree	Family Dollar	Total
Alabama	117	172	289
Arizona	108	152	260
Arkansas	65	115	180
California	536	123	659
Colorado	88	125	213
Connecticut	57	54	111
Delaware	29	26	55
District of Columbia	3	3	6
Florida	442	584	1,026
Georgia	220	386	606
Idaho	30	45	75
Illinois	226	218	444
Indiana	122	205	327
Iowa	41	33	74
Kansas	45	43	88
Kentucky	91	208	299
Louisiana	96	299	395
Maine	29	63	92
Maryland	109	90	199
Massachusetts	109	92	201
Michigan	206	378	584
Minnesota	110	72	182
Mississippi	72	158	230
Missouri	117	113	230
Montana	14	13	27
Nebraska	21	35	56
Nevada	45	43	88
New Hampshire	35	32	67
New Jersey	145	99	244
New Mexico	45	119	164
New York	280	294	574
North Carolina	222	445	667
North Dakota	8	20	28
Ohio	221	469	690
Oklahoma	63	133	196
Oregon	89	—	89
Pennsylvania	272	298	570
Rhode Island	29	22	51
South Carolina	109	231	340
South Dakota	10	29	39
Tennessee	154	232	386
Texas	404	1,027	1,431
Utah	52	58	110
Vermont	8	14	22
Virginia	165	238	403
Washington	107	—	107
West Virginia	40	114	154
Wisconsin	110	143	253
Wyoming	13	32	45
Total	5,729	7,897	13,626



Canada		Dollar Tree
Alberta		37
British Columbia		53
Manitoba		12
Ontario		110
Saskatchewan		13
Total		225

We lease the vast majority of our stores and expect to lease the majority of our new stores as we expand. Our leases typically provide for a short initial lease term, generally five years, with options to extend; however, in some cases we have initial lease terms of seven to fifteen years. We believe this leasing strategy enhances our flexibility to pursue various expansion opportunities resulting from changing market conditions. As current leases expire, we believe that we will be able to obtain lease renewals, if desired, for present store locations, or to obtain leases for equivalent or better locations in the same general area.

Distribution Centers

The following table includes information about the distribution centers that we operate in the United States. Except for 0.4 million square feet of our distribution center in San Bernardino, CA, all of our distribution center capacity is owned. In 2014, we expanded our Joliet, Illinois distribution center by 0.3 million square feet. We believe our distribution center network is currently capable of supporting approximately $24.1 billion in annual sales in the United States.

In 2015, we began construction on our Cherokee County, South Carolina distribution center, which will be 1.5 million square feet and fully automated. We expect this facility to be operational in the third quarter of 2016. In addition, we are expanding our Stockton, California distribution center by 0.3 million square feet. We expect this project to be completed during the second quarter of 2016.



Location	Size in Square Feet
Dollar Tree:
Chesapeake, Virginia	400,000
Olive Branch, Mississippi	425,000
Joliet, Illinois	1,470,000
Stockton, California	525,000
Briar Creek, Pennsylvania	1,003,000
Savannah, Georgia	1,014,000
Marietta, Oklahoma	1,004,000
San Bernardino, California	802,000
Ridgefield, Washington	665,000
Windsor, Connecticut	1,001,000
Family Dollar:
Matthews, North Carolina	930,000
West Memphis, Arkansas	850,000
Front Royal, Virginia	907,000
Duncan, Oklahoma	907,000
Morehead, Kentucky	907,000
Maquoketa, Iowa	907,000
Odessa, Texas	907,000
Marianna, Florida	907,000
Rome, New York	907,000
Ashley, Indiana	814,019
St. George, Utah	814,019

Each of our distribution centers contains advanced materials handling technologies, including radio-frequency inventory tracking equipment and specialized information systems. With the exception of our Dollar Tree Ridgefield, Washington facility and our Family Dollar Matthews, North Carolina facility, each of our distribution centers in the United States also contains automated conveyor and sorting systems.

Distribution services in Canada are provided by a third party from facilities in British Columbia and Ontario.

Store Support Center

Our Dollar Tree Store Support Center is located in an approximately 190,000 square foot building, which we own in Chesapeake, Virginia. Our Family Dollar Store Support Center is located in two buildings totaling approximately 310,000 square feet, which we own in Matthews, North Carolina.

For more information on financing of our distribution centers, see "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" under the caption "Funding Requirements" beginning on page 26 of this Form 10-K.

Item 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

From time to time, we are defendants in ordinary, routine litigation or proceedings incidental to our business, including allegations regarding:


•	employment-related matters;


•	infringement of intellectual property rights;


•	personal injury/wrongful death claims;


•	product safety matters, which may include product recalls in cooperation with the Consumer Products Safety Commission or other jurisdictions;


•	real estate matters related to store leases; and


•	environmental and safety issues.

In addition, we are currently defendants in national and state employment-related class and collective actions, litigation concerning injury from products and a governmental investigation by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. These proceedings are described in "Note 5 - Commitments and Contingencies" under the caption "Contingencies" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" beginning on page 59 of this Form 10-K.

We will vigorously defend ourselves in these matters. We do not believe that any of these matters will, individually or in the aggregate, have a material effect on our business or financial condition. We cannot give assurance, however, that one or more of these lawsuits will not have a material effect on our results of operations for the period in which they are resolved. Based on the information available, including the amount of time remaining before trial, the results of discovery and the judgment of internal and external counsel, we are unable to express an opinion as to the outcome of those matters which are not settled and cannot estimate a potential range of loss except as specified in Note 5. When a range is expressed, we are currently unable to determine the probability of loss within that range.

Item 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

None.

PART II

Item 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Our common stock is traded on The Nasdaq Global Select Market®. Our common stock has been traded on Nasdaq under the symbol "DLTR" since our initial public offering in 1995. The following table gives the high and low sales prices of our common stock as reported by Nasdaq for the periods indicated.



	High		Low
Fiscal year ended January 31, 2015:
First Quarter	$	56.39	$	49.59
Second Quarter	59.84		49.69
Third Quarter	61.00		53.17
Fourth Quarter	72.59		60.21
Fiscal year ended January 30, 2016:
First Quarter	$	84.22	$	70.28
Second Quarter	82.68		74.51
Third Quarter	81.17		60.31
Fourth Quarter	81.97		61.33

On March 23, 2016, the last reported sale price for our common stock, as quoted by Nasdaq, was $78.96 per share. As of March 23, 2016, we had approximately 2,841 shareholders of record.

We did not repurchase any shares of common stock on the open market in 2015. At January 30, 2016, we had $1.0 billion remaining under Board repurchase authorization.

On September 17, 2013, we entered into agreements and made payments to repurchase $1.0 billion of our common shares under two $500.0 million Accelerated Share Repurchase Agreements (ASRs). On February 14, 2014 the uncollared agreement concluded and we received an additional 1.9 million shares without any additional cash payment resulting in a total of 9.1 million shares repurchased under the uncollared agreement. On May 15, 2014 the collared agreement concluded and we received an additional 1.2 million shares, without any additional cash payments, resulting in a total of 9.0 million shares repurchased under this agreement. See additional discussion of the ASRs in "Note 8 - Shareholders' Equity" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” beginning on page 65 of this Form 10-K.

We anticipate that substantially all of our cash flow from operations in the foreseeable future will be retained for the development and expansion of our business, the repayment of indebtedness and, as authorized by our Board of Directors, the repurchase of stock. Management does not anticipate paying dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future.

Stock Performance Graph

The following graph sets forth the yearly percentage change in the cumulative total shareholder return on our common stock during the five fiscal years ended January 30, 2016, compared with the cumulative total returns of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P Retailing Index. The comparison assumes that $100 was invested in our common stock on January 29, 2011, and, in each of the foregoing indices on January 29, 2011, and that dividends were reinvested.

Item 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

The following table presents a summary of our selected financial data for the fiscal years ended January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015, February 1, 2014, February 2, 2013, and January 28, 2012. Fiscal 2012 included 53 weeks, commensurate with the retail calendar, while all other fiscal years reported in the table contain 52 weeks. The selected income statement and balance sheet data have been derived from our consolidated financial statements that have been audited by our independent registered public accounting firm. This information should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes, "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and our financial information found elsewhere in this report.

As a result of the acquisition of Family Dollar on July 6, 2015, the income statement data below for the year ended January 30, 2016 includes the results of operations of Family Dollar since that date. In addition, the balance sheet information below as of January 30, 2016 includes the fair values of the Family Dollar assets acquired and liabilities assumed as of July 6, 2015.

Comparable store net sales compares net sales for stores open before December of the year prior to the two years being compared, including expanded stores. The comparable store net sales calculation only includes our Dollar Tree stores. Net sales per store and net sales per selling square foot are calculated for stores open throughout the period presented.

Amounts in the following tables are in millions, except per share data, number of stores data, net sales per selling square foot data and inventory turns.



	Year Ended
	January 30, 2016			January 31, 2015			February 1, 2014			February 2, 2013			January 28, 2012
Income Statement Data:
Net sales	$	15,498.4		$	8,602.2		$	7,840.3		$	7,394.5		$	6,630.5
Gross profit	4,656.7			3,034.0			2,789.8			2,652.7			2,378.3
Selling, general and administrative expenses	3,607.0			1,993.8			1,819.5			1,732.6			1,596.2
Operating income	1,049.7			1,040.2			970.3			920.1			782.1
Net income	282.4			599.2			596.7			619.3			488.3
Margin Data (as a percentage of net sales):
Gross profit	30.1		%	35.3		%	35.6		%	35.9		%	35.9		%
Selling, general and administrative expenses	23.3		%	23.2		%	23.2		%	23.5		%	24.1		%
Operating income	6.8		%	12.1		%	12.4		%	12.4		%	11.8		%
Net income	1.8		%	7.0		%	7.6		%	8.4		%	7.4		%
Per Share Data:
Diluted net income per share	$	1.26		$	2.90		$	2.72		$	2.68		$	2.01
Diluted net income per share increase (decrease)	(56.6		)%	6.6		%	1.5		%	33.3		%	29.7		%



	As of
	January 30, 2016			January 31, 2015			February 1, 2014			February 2, 2013			January 28, 2012
Balance Sheet Data:
Cash and cash equivalents
and short-term investments	$	740.1		$	864.1		$	267.7		$	399.9		$	288.3
Working capital	1,840.5			1,133.0			692.2			797.3			628.4
Total assets	15,901.2			3,492.7			2,767.7			2,750.4			2,328.2
Total debt, including capital lease obligations	7,465.5			757.0			769.8			271.3			265.8
Shareholders' equity	4,406.9			1,785.0			1,170.7			1,667.3			1,344.6

	Year Ended
	January 30, 2016			January 31, 2015			February 1, 2014			February 2, 2013			January 28, 2012
Selected Operating Data:
Number of stores open at end of period	13,851			5,367			4,992			4,671			4,351
Dollar Tree	5,954			5,367			4,992			4,671			4,351
Family Dollar	7,897			—			—			—			—
Gross square footage at end of period	132.1			58.3			54.3			50.9			47.4
Dollar Tree	64.2			58.3			54.3			50.9			47.4
Family Dollar	67.9			—			—			—			—
Selling square footage at end of period	108.4			46.5			43.2			40.5			37.6
Dollar Tree	51.3			46.5			43.2			40.5			37.6
Family Dollar	57.1			—			—			—			—
Selling square footage annual growth⁽¹⁾	10.3		%	7.4		%	6.9		%	7.7		%	6.9		%
Net sales annual growth⁽¹⁾	8.5		%	9.7		%	6.0		%	11.5		%	12.7		%
Comparable store net sales increase⁽¹⁾	2.1		%	4.3		%	2.4		%	3.4		%	6.0		%
Net sales per selling square foot⁽¹⁾	$	191		$	192		$	187		$	190		$	182
Net sales per store⁽¹⁾	$	1.6		$	1.7		$	1.6		$	1.6		$	1.6
Selected Financial Ratios:
Return on assets⁽¹⁾	11.4		%	19.1		%	21.6		%	24.4		%	20.7		%
Return on equity⁽¹⁾	31.5		%	40.5		%	42.1		%	41.1		%	34.8		%
Inventory turns⁽¹⁾	4.5			4.4			4.1			4.3			4.2

⁽¹⁾ Family Dollar was not included in the determination of these items

Item 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

In Management’s Discussion and Analysis, we explain the general financial condition and the results of operations for our company, including:


•	what factors affect our business;


•	what our net sales, earnings, gross margins and costs were in 2015, 2014 and 2013;


•	why those net sales, earnings, gross margins and costs were different from the year before;


•	how all of this affects our overall financial condition;


•	what our expenditures for capital projects were in 2015 and 2014 and what we expect them to be in 2016; and


•	where funds will come from to pay for future expenditures.

As you read Management’s Discussion and Analysis, please refer to our consolidated financial statements, included in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Form 10-K, which present the results of operations for the fiscal years ended January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015 and February 1, 2014. In Management’s Discussion and Analysis, we analyze and explain the annual changes in some specific line items in the consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2015 compared to fiscal year 2014 and for fiscal year 2014 compared to fiscal year 2013. We also provide information regarding the performance of each of our operating segments. Unless otherwise indicated, references to "we," "our" or "us" refer to Dollar Tree, Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries on a consolidated basis.

Key Events and Recent Developments

Several key events have had or are expected to have a significant effect on our operations. You should keep in mind that:


•	On July 6, 2015, we completed our acquisition of Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (the "Acquisition")


•	On July 6, 2015, we repaid all amounts outstanding under our Senior Notes issued in 2013.


•	On June 11, 2015, we amended the terms of the New Senior Secured Credit Facilities to refinance the existing $3.95 billion Term Loan B tranche with $3.3 billion in aggregate principal amount of floating-rate Term B-1 Loans and $650.0 million in aggregate principal amount of fixed-rate Term B-2 Loans.


•	On March 9, 2015, we entered into a credit agreement and term loan facilities and received $3.95 billion under the Term Loan B which we used in connection with our financing of the Acquisition.


•	On February 23, 2015, we completed the offering of $3.25 billion of acquisition notes which we used in connection with our financing of the Acquisition.


•	In January 2015, we completed a 270,000 square foot expansion of our distribution center in Joliet, Illinois. The Joliet distribution center is now a 1,470,000 square foot, fully automated facility.


•	On July 27, 2014, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger to acquire Family Dollar in a cash and stock transaction.


•	On September 17, 2013, we entered into agreements with JP Morgan Chase Bank to repurchase $1.0 billion of our common stock under a variable maturity accelerated share repurchase program, 50% of which was collared and 50% of which was uncollared.


•	On September 16, 2013, we completed a private placement with institutional investors of $750.0 million aggregate principal amount of Senior Notes. The Senior Notes include three tranches with $300.0 million of 4.03% Senior Notes due in September 2020, $350.0 million of 4.63% Senior Notes due in September 2023 and $100.0 million of 4.78% Senior Notes due in September 2025.


•	On September 13, 2013, our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of an additional $2.0 billion of our common stock. This authorization replaced all previous authorizations. At January 30, 2016, we had $1.0 billion remaining under Board repurchase authorization.


•	In August 2013, we completed a 401,000 square foot expansion of our distribution center in Marietta, Oklahoma. The Marietta distribution center is now a 1,004,000 square foot, fully automated facility.


•	In June 2013, we completed construction on a new 1.0 million square foot distribution center in Windsor, Connecticut.


•	In March 2013, we leased an additional 0.4 million square feet at our distribution center in San Bernardino, California. The San Bernardino distribution center is now an 802,000 square foot facility.

Overview

We are a leading operator of more than 13,800 discount retail stores and we conduct our operations in two reporting segments. Our Dollar Tree segment is the leading operator of discount variety stores offering merchandise at the fixed price point of $1.00. Our Family Dollar segment operates general merchandise discount retail stores providing consumers with a selection of competitively-priced merchandise in convenient neighborhood stores.

Our net sales are derived from the sale of merchandise. Two major factors tend to affect our net sales trends. First is our success at opening new stores or adding new stores through mergers or acquisitions. Second is the performance of our stores once they are open. Sales vary at our existing stores from one year to the next. We refer to this change as a change in comparable store net sales, because we compare only those stores that are open throughout both of the periods being compared, beginning after the first fifteen months of operation. We include sales from stores expanded during the year in the calculation of comparable store net sales, which has the effect of increasing our comparable store net sales. The term 'expanded' also includes stores that are relocated. Our comparable store net sales calculation only includes our Dollar Tree stores as our Family Dollar stores were acquired on July 6, 2015. Stores that have been rebannered are considered to be new stores and are not included in the calculation of comparable store net sales until after the first fifteen months of operation under the new banner.

At January 30, 2016, we operated stores in 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as stores in five Canadian provinces. A breakdown of store counts and square footage by segment for the years ended January 30, 2016 and January 31, 2015, respectively, are as follows (Family Dollar's beginning amounts are as of the July 6, 2015 Acquisition Date):



	Year Ended
	January 30, 2016						January 31, 2015
	Dollar Tree		Family Dollar		Total		Dollar Tree		Family Dollar	Total
Store Count:
Beginning	5,367		8,284		13,651		4,992		—	4,992
New stores	400		166		566		391		—	391
Rebannered stores	205		(205	)	—		—		—	—
Closings	(18	)	(23	)	(41	)	(16	)	—	(16	)
Divestitures	—		(325	)	(325	)	—		—	—
Ending	5,954		7,897		13,851		5,367		—	5,367
Relocations	64		102		166		72		—	72

Selling Square Feet (in millions):
Beginning	46.5		59.9		106.4		43.2		—	43.2
New stores	3.2		1.2		4.4		3.2		—	3.2
Rebannered stores	1.5		(1.5	)	—		—		—	—
Closings	(0.1	)	(0.1	)	(0.2	)	(0.1	)	—	(0.1	)
Divestitures	—		(2.4	)	(2.4	)	—		—	—
Relocations	0.2		—		0.2		0.2		—	0.2
Ending	51.3		57.1		108.4		46.5		—	46.5

Stores are included as rebanners when they close or open, respectively. Comparable store net sales for Dollar Tree may be negatively affected when a Family Dollar store is rebannered near an existing Dollar Tree store. The average size of stores opened in 2015 was approximately 8,030 selling square feet (or about 10,000 gross square feet) for the Dollar Tree segment and 7,000 selling square feet (or about 8,200 gross square feet) for the Family Dollar segment. For 2016, we continue to plan to open stores that are approximately 8,000 - 10,000 selling square feet (or about 10,000 - 12,000 gross square feet) for the Dollar Tree segment and approximately 6,000 - 8,000 selling square feet (or about 7,000 - 9,000 gross square feet) for the Family Dollar segment. We believe that these size stores are in the ranges of our optimal sizes operationally and give our customers a shopping environment which invites them to shop longer, buy more and make return visits, which increases our customer traffic.

Fiscal 2015, fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2013 which ended on January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015 and February 1, 2014, respectively, each included 52 weeks.

In fiscal 2015, comparable store net sales increased by 2.1%. The comparable store net sales increase was the result of a 1.4% increase in the number of transactions and a 0.8% increase in average ticket. We believe comparable store net sales continued to be positively affected by a number of our Dollar Tree initiatives, as debit and credit card penetration continued to increase in 2015, and we continued the rollout of frozen and refrigerated merchandise to more of our Dollar Tree stores. At January 30, 2016, the Dollar Tree segment had frozen and refrigerated merchandise in approximately 4,285 stores, which includes rebannered stores, compared to approximately 3,620 stores at January 31, 2015. We believe that the addition of frozen and refrigerated product enables us to increase sales and earnings by increasing the number of shopping trips made by our customers. In addition, the Dollar Tree segment accepts food stamps (under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”)) in approximately 5,600 qualified stores compared to 5,000 at the end of 2014.

Our point-of-sale technology provides us with valuable sales and inventory information to assist our buyers and improve our merchandise allocation to our stores. We believe that this has enabled us to better manage our inventory flow in our stores resulting in more efficient distribution and store operations.

We must continue to control our merchandise costs, inventory levels and our general and administrative expenses as increases in these items could negatively impact our operating results.

We previously announced that we will rebanner our Deals stores in 2015 and 2016. The majority of the Deals stores will be rebannered as Dollar Tree stores and the remaining stores will be rebannered as Family Dollar Stores. In 2015, 52 stores were rebannered and we recorded $15.5 million in expenses in connection with the rebannering in fiscal 2015.

Acquisition

On July 27, 2014, we executed an Agreement and Plan of Merger to acquire Family Dollar in a cash and stock transaction. On July 6, 2015 (the "Acquisition Date") we completed the Acquisition and Family Dollar became a direct, wholly-owned subsidiary. Under the Acquisition, the Family Dollar shareholders received $59.60 in cash and 0.2484 shares of our common stock for each share of Family Dollar common stock they owned, plus cash in lieu of fractional shares (the "Merger Consideration").

As of the Acquisition Date, each outstanding performance share right of Family Dollar common stock was canceled in exchange for the right of the holder to receive the Merger Consideration (the "PSR Payment"). The aggregate amount we paid for the Merger Consideration and PSR Payment was $6.8 billion in cash and we issued 28.5 million shares of our common stock, valued at $2.3 billion based on the closing price of our common stock on July 2, 2015.

For a complete description of the Acquisition refer to our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on July 8, 2015.

We incurred $39.2 million and $28.5 million in acquisition-related expenses in 2015 and 2014, respectively, excluding acquisition-related interest expense. We also expended approximately $165.7 million in capitalizable debt issuance costs related to the financing of the Acquisition and $129.8 million of debt-issuance costs was included as a reduction in "Long-term debt, net, excluding current portion" at January 30, 2016.

We expect to achieve approximately $300 million in annual cost savings synergies by the end of the third year after closing, and that we will incur $300 million in one-time costs to achieve these synergies. We project that the Acquisition will be dilutive to earnings per share in the first twelve months following closing on a GAAP basis; however, we expect it will be accretive excluding the one-time costs to achieve synergies.

In 2015, we completed the offering of $3.25 billion of senior notes and entered into a credit facility and term loan providing for $6.2 billion in senior secured credit facilities. See "Liquidity and Capital Resources" for a further discussion of these transactions.

In connection with the Acquisition, we agreed to divest 330 Family Dollar stores to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the Acquisition would be anticompetitive in certain local markets. The 330 Family Dollar stores represent approximately $45.5 million of annual operating income. In accordance with purchase accounting, the net effect of the divestiture on our assets and liabilities is fully reflected in the table summarizing the preliminary estimates of fair value set forth in "Note 2 - Acquisition" and the Consolidated Balance Sheet of Dollar Tree, Inc. as of January 30, 2016 included in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Form 10-K. The divestiture was completed on November 1, 2015 and the primary expected future effect of the sale on the Consolidated Income Statements of Dollar Tree, Inc. will be that we will lose the operating income associated with the divested stores and will incur approximately $5.0 million to $10.0 million in closing costs and set-up costs for transition services. Over a period expected to be no more than 24 months, we will provide certain transition services to the buyer for which we expect to be reimbursed by the buyer at our direct operating costs for those services.

Results of Operations



	Year Ended
	January 30, 2016		January 31, 2015		February 1, 2014
Net sales	100.0	%	100.0	%	100.0	%
Cost of sales	69.9	%	64.7	%	64.4	%
Gross profit	30.1	%	35.3	%	35.6	%
Selling, general and administrative expenses	23.3	%	23.2	%	23.2	%
Operating income	6.8	%	12.1	%	12.4	%
Interest expense, net	3.9	%	0.9	%	0.2	%
Other expense, net	—	%	0.1	%	—	%
Income before income taxes	2.9	%	11.1	%	12.2	%
Provision for income taxes	1.1	%	4.1	%	4.6	%
Net income	1.8	%	7.0	%	7.6	%

Fiscal year ended January 30, 2016 compared to fiscal year ended January 31, 2015

Net sales. Net sales increased 80.2%, or $6,896.2 million, in 2015 compared to 2014, resulting from $6,162.0 million of net sales from Family Dollar since the Acquisition Date, sales in the Dollar Tree segment's new stores and increased comparable store sales. Comparable store net sales are positively affected by our expanded and relocated stores, which we include in the calculation, and, to a lesser extent, are negatively affected when we open new stores, rebanner stores or expand stores near existing ones.

Gross profit. Gross profit increased by $1,622.7 million, or 53.5%, to $4,656.7 million in 2015 compared to $3,034.0 million in 2014. The dollar increase in gross profit was primarily driven by $1,407.4 million of gross profit for Family Dollar as well as higher sales for Dollar Tree. Our gross profit margin is negatively impacted by the overall lower-margin product mix for the Family Dollar segment. Included in Family Dollar's cost of sales is $73.0 million of markdown expense related to sku rationalization and planned liquidations and $70.2 million for amortization of the stepped-up inventory value for inventory which was sold during 2015.

Selling, general and administrative expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses for 2015 increased to $3,607.0 million from $1,993.8 million in 2014, an increase of $1,613.2 million or 80.9%. The increase was primarily due to $1,438.2 million of expense for Family Dollar. As a percentage of net sales, selling, general and administrative expenses increased to 23.3% for 2015 compared to 23.2% for 2014. In 2015, we incurred $39.1 million or 25 basis points of expenses related to the Acquisition compared to $28.5 million or 35 basis points in 2014. Excluding acquisition expenses, the selling, general and administrative rate increased to 23.0% in 2015 compared to 22.8% in 2014. The increase is primarily due to higher depreciation and amortization as a percentage of net sales resulting from the recording of favorable lease rights and fixed assets at their fair values in connection with the Acquisition.

Operating income. Operating income for 2015 increased to $1,049.7 million compared with $1,040.2 million in 2014, an increase of $9.5 million or 0.9%. Operating income margin decreased from 12.1% in 2014 to 6.8% in 2015. The increase in operating income was due to a $40.3 million increase in the Dollar Tree segment partially offset by a $30.8 million operating loss in the Family Dollar segment. The decrease in operating income margin is a result of the Family Dollar segment operating loss due to unusually high markdowns related to sku rationalization and planned liquidations and the amortization of stepped-up inventory sold in 2015 as well as higher depreciation and amortization as a percentage of net sales resulting from the recording of favorable lease rights and fixed assets at their fair values in connection with the Acquisition.

Interest expense, net. Interest expense, net was $599.4 million in 2015 compared to $80.1 million in 2014 due to the following:


•	A $161.9 million increase in interest for debt issued in conjunction with the Acquisition compared with interest on the senior notes;


•	An $89.5 million prepayment penalty on retirement of the senior notes;


•	A $39.5 million prepayment penalty for the Term Loan B refinancing;


•	A $27.3 million write-off of the debt discount and deferred financing costs due to the Term Loan B refinancing;


•	A $19.0 million write-off of deferred financing costs due to a $1.0 billion prepayment of the Term Loan B-1; and


•	A $12.1 million increase in loan commitment fees on the new debt structure.

Income taxes. Our effective tax rate was 37.0% in 2015 compared to 37.2% in 2014. The rate decrease is due to the utilization of a capital loss to offset the previously recognized gain on our investment in Ollie's Holdings, Inc. and additional work opportunity tax credits partially offset by an increase in the valuation allowance.

Fiscal year ended January 31, 2015 compared to fiscal year ended February 1, 2014

Net sales. Net sales increased 9.7%, or $761.9 million, in 2014 compared to 2013, resulting from sales in our new stores and a 4.3% increase in comparable store net sales. Comparable store net sales are positively affected by our expanded and relocated stores, which we include in the calculation, and, to a lesser extent, are negatively affected when we open new stores or expand stores near existing ones.

Gross profit. Gross profit margin was 35.3% in 2014 compared to 35.6% in 2013 due to increased freight costs partially offset by leverage in occupancy costs from the higher comparable store sales increase.

Selling, general and administrative expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses, as a percentage of net sales, remained at 23.2% for 2014 compared to 2013. Excluding $28.5 million or approximately 35 basis points of expenses related to the Family Dollar acquisition, the selling, general and administrative rate was 22.9%. The decrease is primarily due to lower store payroll, health insurance and workers' compensation costs.

Operating income. Operating income margin was 12.1% in 2014 compared to 12.4% in 2013. Excluding the approximately 35 basis points of acquisition-related expenses, operating income margin was 12.4% in 2014 as lower selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales were offset by lower gross profit margin for the reasons noted above.

Interest expense, net. Interest expense, net increased $64.7 million due to $46.7 million of commitment fees related to the financing of the Family Dollar acquisition and a full year of interest expense on the $750.0 million of senior notes issued in September 2013.

Other expense, net. Other expense, net in 2014 increased $5.3 million primarily due to unfavorable fair market value adjustments for our diesel fuel hedges.

Income taxes. Our effective tax rate was 37.2% in 2014 compared to 37.5% in 2013. The rate decrease is the result of lower state tax rates and additional work opportunity tax credits in 2014.

Segment Information

We operate a chain of more than 13,800 retail discount stores in 48 states and five Canadian provinces. Our operations are conducted in two reporting business segments: Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. We define our segments as those operations whose results our chief operating decision maker ("CODM") regularly reviews to analyze performance and allocate resources.

The Dollar Tree segment is the leading operator of discount variety stores offering merchandise at the fixed price of $1.00. The Dollar Tree segment includes our operations under the "Dollar Tree," "Dollar Tree Canada," "Deals" and "Dollar Tree Deals" brands, ten distribution centers in the United States and two in Canada and a Store Support Center in Chesapeake, Virginia.

The Family Dollar segment operates a chain of general merchandise retail discount stores providing consumers with a selection of competitively priced merchandise in convenient neighborhood stores. The Family Dollar segment consists of our operations under the "Family Dollar" brand, eleven distribution centers and a Store Support Center in Matthews, North Carolina.

We measure the results of our segments using, among other measures, each segment's net sales, gross profit and operating income (loss). We may revise the measurement of each segment's operating income, including the allocation of distribution center and Store Support Center costs, as determined by the information regularly reviewed by the CODM. When the measurement of a segment changes, previous period amounts and balances are reclassified to be comparable to the current period's presentation.

Because the Acquisition occurred in the fiscal year ended January 30, 2016, comparable information for the Family Dollar segment is not provided. In addition, results for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2015 and the fiscal year ended February 1, 2014 only include the Dollar Tree segment; therefore, comparative information for these periods, which is included above, is not provided in this discussion.

The following table summarizes the operating results of the Dollar Tree segment:



	Year Ended
	January 30, 2016				January 31, 2015
(in millions)	$		% of Sales		$		% of Sales
Net sales	$	9,336.4			$	8,602.2
Gross profit	3,249.3		34.8	%	3,034.0		35.3	%
Operating income	1,080.5		11.6	%	1,040.2		12.1	%

Net sales for Dollar Tree increased 8.5% in 2015 compared to 2014 due to sales from new stores and a comparable store sales increase of 2.5% on a constant currency basis.

Gross profit margin for Dollar Tree decreased to 34.8% in 2015 compared to 35.3% in 2014. The decrease in gross profit margin was due to:


•	higher distribution and occupancy costs as a percentage of net sales;


•	higher shrink as a result of unfavorable physical inventory results; and


•	higher markdowns due to Deals markdowns taken on multi-price inventory in preparation for their conversion to Dollar Tree stores.

Operating income margin for Dollar Tree decreased to 11.6% in 2015 compared to 12.1% in 2014. Excluding acquisition costs of $39.2 million or 40 basis points in 2015 and $28.5 million or 35 basis points in 2014, operating income margin was 12.0% and 12.4% in 2015 and 2014, respectively. Excluding acquisition costs, the decrease in operating income margin was the result of lower gross profit margin as noted above and higher professional fees related to the Family Dollar integration partially offset by lower payroll costs as a percentage of net sales due to lower profit sharing contributions.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our business requires capital to build and open new stores, expand our distribution network and operate and expand existing stores. Our working capital requirements for existing stores are seasonal and usually reach their peak in September and October. Historically, we have satisfied our seasonal working capital requirements for existing stores and have funded our store opening and distribution network expansion programs from internally generated funds and borrowings under our credit facilities.

The following table compares cash-flow related information for the years ended January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015 and February 1, 2014:



	Year Ended
	January 30,			January 31,			February 1,
(in millions)	2016			2015			2014
Net cash provided by (used in):
Operating activities	$	780.9		$	926.8		$	794.1
Investing activities	(6,978.4		)	(315.0		)	(325.0		)
Financing activities	6,070.4			(14.6		)	(597.8		)

Net cash provided by operating activities decreased $145.9 million in 2015 compared to 2014 due primarily to lower net income, net of depreciation and amortization, an decrease in accrued expenditures related to the Family Dollar acquisition, an increase in cash used to purchase merchandise inventories and an increase in accounts payable.

Net cash provided by operating activities increased $132.7 million in 2014 compared to 2013 due primarily to an increase in accrued expenditures related to the Family Dollar acquisition and a decrease in cash used to purchase merchandise inventories.

Net cash used in investing activities increased $6,663.4 million in 2015 compared with 2014 primarily due to the acquisition of Family Dollar and higher capital expenditures.

Net cash used in investing activities decreased $10.0 million in 2014 compared with 2013 primarily due to reduced capital expenditures, increased proceeds on fixed asset dispositions and reduced purchases of restricted investments.

In 2015, net cash provided by financing activities increased $6,085.0 million compared to 2014 primarily due to the issuance of the acquisition-related debt partially offset by the repayment of the senior notes and principal payments on the term loans.

In 2014, net cash used in financing activities decreased $583.2 million compared to 2013 primarily due to $1.1 billion of share repurchases and the repayment of $250.0 million in long-term debt in 2013 partially offset by the issuance of $750.0 million of Senior Notes in 2013.

At January 30, 2016, our long-term borrowings were $7,465.5 million. We also have $120.0 million, $110.0 million and $100.0 million Letter of Credit Reimbursement and Security Agreements, under which approximately $210.1 million were committed to letters of credit issued for routine purchases of imported merchandise at January 30, 2016.

In September 2013, we entered into a Note Purchase Agreement with institutional accredited investors in which we issued and sold $750.0 million of senior notes (the "Notes") in an offering exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933. The Notes consist of three tranches: $300.0 million of 4.03% Senior Notes due September 16, 2020; $350.0 million of 4.63% Senior Notes due September 16, 2023; and $100.0 million of 4.78% Senior Notes due September 16, 2025. Interest on the Notes was payable semi-annually on January 15 and July 15 of each year. The Notes were unsecured and ranked pari passu in right of repayment with our other senior unsecured indebtedness. We could prepay some or all of the Notes at any time in an amount not less than 5% of the original aggregate principal amount of the Notes to be prepaid, at a price equal to the sum of (a) 100% of the principal amount thereof, plus accrued and unpaid interest, and (b) the applicable make-whole amount. In the event of a change in control (as defined in the Note Purchase Agreement), we could have been required to prepay the Notes. The Note Purchase Agreement contained customary affirmative and restrictive covenants. We used the net proceeds of the Notes to finance share repurchases.

On January 20, 2015, we entered into the First Amendment (the “ Notes Amendment”) to the Note Purchase Agreement, with a majority of the noteholders party thereto. The Notes Amendment was entered into in connection with our pending acquisition (the “Acquisition”) of Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (“Family Dollar”). The Notes Amendment allowed, among other things, a newly-formed subsidiary of Dollar Tree to issue debt and hold the proceeds in escrow pending consummation of the Acquisition (such debt, the “Escrow Debt”). Pursuant to the terms of the Notes Amendment, in certain circumstances the amount of interest due on the Notes could increase by 1.0% per annum. The Notes Amendment also contains certain negative covenants and other restrictions applicable during the period in which any Escrow Debt is outstanding. On the Acquisition date, we prepaid the Notes outstanding of $750.0 million and paid $89.5 million, determined in accordance with the provisions of the Dollar Tree NPA plus additional interest in accordance with the provisions of the first amendment to the Dollar Tree NPA.

In June 2012, we entered into a five-year $750.0 million unsecured Credit Agreement (the Agreement). The Agreement provided for a $750.0 million revolving line of credit, including up to $150.0 million in available letters of credit. The interest rate on the Agreement was based, at our option, on a LIBOR rate, plus a margin, or an alternate base rate, plus a margin. The Agreement also bore a facilities fee, calculated as a percentage, as defined, of the amount available under the line of credit, payable quarterly. The Agreement also bore an administrative fee payable annually. The Agreement, among other things, required the maintenance of certain specified financial ratios, restricts the payment of certain distributions and prohibits the incurrence of certain new indebtedness.

In September 2013, we amended the Agreement to enable the issuance of the Notes.

On August 15, 2014, we entered into an amendment (the "Credit Amendment") to the Agreement. The Credit Amendment further amends the Agreement to facilitate the issuance and/or borrowings of certain third-party debt financing to finance the Acquisition. The Credit Amendment also facilitates escrow arrangements related to the Acquisition. On the Acquisition Date, we paid in full all amounts owing under the Agreement and terminated all commitments to extend further credit thereunder.

On February 23, 2015, we completed the offering of $750.0 million aggregate principal amount of 5.25% senior notes due 2020 (the “2020 Notes”) and $2.5 billion aggregate principal amount of 5.75% senior notes due 2023 (the “2023 Notes”, and together with the 2020 notes, the “Acquisition Notes”). The Acquisition Notes were offered only to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and outside the United States, only to non-U.S. investors pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Acquisition Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent an effective registration statement or an applicable exemption from registration requirements or a transaction not subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act or any state securities laws.

We used the proceeds of the Acquisition Notes to finance in part the Acquisition. The Acquisition Notes are jointly and severally guaranteed on an unsecured, unsubordinated basis, subject to certain exceptions, by each of our subsidiaries that guarantees the obligations under our new senior secured credit facilities or certain other indebtedness, including Family Dollar and certain of its subsidiaries.

The 2020 notes, which mature on March 1, 2020, were issued pursuant to an indenture, dated as of February 23, 2015, with U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee (the “2020 Notes Indenture”). The 2023 notes, which mature on March 1, 2023, were issued pursuant to an indenture, dated as of February 23, 2015, with U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee (the “2023 Notes Indenture”, and together with the 2020 notes indenture, the “Indentures”).

Interest on the Acquisition Notes is due semiannually on March 1 and September 1 of each year and commenced on September 1, 2015. No principal is due on the Acquisition Notes until their maturity dates.

The Indentures contain covenants that limit our and certain of our subsidiaries ability to, among other things and subject to certain significant exceptions: (i) incur, assume or guarantee additional indebtedness; (ii) declare or pay dividends or make other distributions with respect to, or purchase or otherwise acquire or retire for value, equity interests; (iii) make any principal payment on, or redeem or repurchase, subordinated debt; (iv) make loans, advances or other investments; (v) incur liens; (vi) sell or otherwise dispose of assets, including capital stock of subsidiaries; (vii) consolidate or merge with or into, or sell all or substantially all assets to, another person; and (viii) enter into transactions with affiliates. The Indentures also provide for certain events of default, which, if any of them occurs, would permit or require the principal, premium, if any, interest and any other monetary obligations on all the then outstanding Acquisition Notes under the applicable indenture to be declared immediately due and payable.

On March 9, 2015, we entered into a credit agreement, with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent, providing for $6.2 billion in senior secured credit facilities (the “New Senior Secured Credit Facilities”) consisting of a $1.25 billion revolving credit facility (the “New Revolving Credit Facility”) and $4.95 billion of term loan facilities (the “New Term Loan Facilities”). The New Term Loan Facilities consist of a $1.0 billion Term Loan A tranche and a $3.95 billion Term Loan B tranche. The New Revolving Credit Facility and the borrowings under the Term Loan A tranche mature five years after the Acquisition Date, unless any of the 2020 Notes remain outstanding as of 91 days prior to their stated maturity, in which case the New Revolving Credit Facility and the borrowings under the Term Loan A tranche will mature at such time. The borrowings under the Term Loan B tranche mature seven years after the Acquisition Date.

Upon the consummation of the Acquisition, we drew the term loans under the Term Loan A facility and have the ability to borrow under the New Revolving Credit Facility.

On June 11, 2015, we amended the terms of the New Senior Secured Credit Facilities to refinance the Term Loan B tranche with $3.3 billion of floating-rate Term B-1 Loans and $650.0 million of fixed-rate Term B-2 Loans. On January 26, 2016, we prepaid $1.0 billion of the $3.3 billion Term B-1 Loan.

The New Senior Secured Credit Facilities were not guaranteed by us or any of our subsidiaries prior to the consummation of the Acquisition, but upon and after the Acquisition Date, the New Senior Secured Credit Facilities are guaranteed by certain of our direct or indirect wholly owned U.S. subsidiaries, including Family Dollar and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Credit Agreement Guarantors”). Upon and after the Acquisition Date, the New Senior Secured Credit Facilities are secured by a security interest in substantially all the assets of Dollar Tree and the Credit Agreement Guarantors, subject to certain exceptions.

The loans under the Term Loan A tranche and the New Revolving Credit Facility bear interest at LIBOR plus 2.25% per annum (or a base rate plus 1.25%), the Term B-1 Loans of the New Senior Secured Credit Facilities bear interest at LIBOR plus 2.75% per annum (or a base rate plus 1.75%) and the Term B-2 Loans bear interest at a fixed rate of 4.25%. The Term B-1 tranche is subject to a “LIBOR floor” of 0.75%. The Term Loan A tranche of the New Term Loan Facilities requires quarterly amortization payments of 1.25% of the original principal amount thereof in the first year following the Acquisition Date, 2.5% of the original principal amount thereof in the second year following the Acquisition Date, and 3.75% of the original principal amount thereof thereafter. The Term B-1 Loans require quarterly amortization payments of 0.25% of the original principal amount thereof after the Acquisition Date and the Term B-2 Loans do not require amortization payments prior to maturity. The New Term Loan Facilities, excluding the Term B-2 Loans, also require mandatory prepayments in connection with certain asset sales and out of excess cash flow, among other things, and subject in each case to certain significant exceptions. We expect to pay certain commitment fees in connection with the New Revolving Credit Facility. Additionally, the Term B-1 Loans will require us to pay a 1.0% prepayment fee if the loans thereunder are subject to certain repricing transactions before June 11, 2016. The Term B-2 Loans will require us to pay a 2.0% prepayment fee if they are repaid in the second year after the refinance date and a 1.0% prepayment fee if they are repaid in the third year after the refinance date.

The New Senior Secured Credit Facilities contain representations and warranties, events of default and affirmative and negative covenants. These include, among other things and subject to certain significant exceptions, restrictions on our ability to declare or pay dividends, repay the Acquisition Notes, create liens, incur additional indebtedness, make investments, dispose of assets and merge or consolidate with any other person. In addition, a financial maintenance covenant based on our consolidated first lien secured net leverage ratio will apply to the New Revolving Credit Facility and the Term Loan A tranche of the New Term Loan Facilities.

Annual interest expense is expected to approximate $360.0 million in 2016, $20.0 million of which is non-cash amortization of debt-issuance costs.

Historically we have used cash to repurchase shares but we did not repurchase any shares in fiscal 2015 and 2014. We repurchased 17.4 million shares for $1,112.1 million in fiscal 2013. At January 30, 2016, we have $1.0 billion remaining under Board repurchase authorization.

Funding Requirements

Overview, Including Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We expect our cash needs for opening new stores and rebannering and expanding existing stores in fiscal 2016 to total approximately $457.9 million, which includes capital expenditures, initial inventory and pre-opening costs.

At January 30, 2016, we have $1,250.0 million available under our New Revolving Credit Facility, less amounts outstanding for letters of credit totaling $123.0 million.

Our estimated capital expenditures for fiscal 2016 are between $650.0 million and $670.0 million, including planned expenditures for our new and expanded stores, the addition of freezers and coolers to approximately 400 stores, the completion the Dollar Tree segment's eleventh distribution center and the expansion of our Stockton, California distribution center. We believe that we can adequately fund our working capital requirements and planned capital expenditures for the next few years from net cash provided by operations and potential borrowings under our New Revolving Credit Facility.

The following tables summarize our material contractual obligations at January 30, 2016, including both on- and off-balance sheet arrangements, and our commitments, including interest on long-term borrowings (in millions):



Contractual Obligations	Total		2016		2017		2018		2019		2020		Thereafter
Lease Financing
Operating lease obligations	$	7,349.4	$	1,235.4	$	1,206.7	$	999.5	$	838.3	$	644.6	$	2,424.9
Long-term Borrowings
Acquisition notes	3,250.0		—		—		—		—		750.0		2,500.0
Term loans	3,908.5		108.0		158.0		183.0		658.0		33.0		2,768.5
Assumed secured senior notes	300.0		—		—		—		—		—		300.0
Forgivable promissory note	7.0		—		0.2		1.4		1.4		1.4		2.6
Interest on long-term borrowings	2,064.3		331.2		334.1		325.8		324.9		277.3		471.0
Total obligations	$	16,879.2	$	1,674.6	$	1,699.0	$	1,509.7	$	1,822.6	$	1,706.3	$	8,467.0



Commitments	Total		Expiring in 2016		Expiring in 2017		Expiring in 2018		Expiring in 2019		Expiring in 2020		Thereafter
Letters of credit and surety bonds	$	381.0	$	376.5	$	4.3	$	0.2	$	—	$	—	$	—
Technology assets	7.0		7.0		—		—		—		—		—
Telecommunication contracts	142.7		38.1		34.6		32.5		32.2		5.3		—
Total commitments	$	530.7	$	421.6	$	38.9	$	32.7	$	32.2	$	5.3	$	—

Lease Financing

Operating lease obligations. Our operating lease obligations are primarily for payments under noncancelable store leases. The commitment includes amounts for leases that were signed prior to January 30, 2016 for stores that were not yet open on January 30, 2016.

Long-term Borrowings

Acquisition Notes. In February 2015, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ours (the "Escrow Issuer") completed the offering of $750.0 million aggregate principal amount of 5.25% senior notes due March 1, 2020 (the “2020 Notes”) and $2.5 billion aggregate principal amount of 5.75% senior notes due March 1, 2023 (the “2023 Notes”, and together with the 2020 Notes, the “Acquisition Notes”). The Acquisition Notes were offered only to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and outside the United States, only to non-U.S. investors pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Acquisition Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent an effective registration statement or an applicable exemption from registration requirements or a transaction not subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act or any state securities laws. We used the proceeds of the Acquisition Notes to finance in part the Acquisition. On the Acquisition Date, the Escrow Issuer merged with us and we assumed the obligations in respect of the Acquisition Notes. Interest on the Acquisition Notes is due semiannually on March 1 and September 1, and commenced on September 1, 2015. For complete terms of the Acquisition Notes please see "Note 6 - Long-Term Debt" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" beginning on page 63 of this Form 10-K.

Credit Facility and Term Loans. On March 9, 2015, the Escrow Issuer entered into a credit agreement, with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent, providing for $6.2 billion in senior secured credit facilities (the “New Senior Secured Credit Facilities”) consisting of a $1.25 billion revolving credit facility (the “New Revolving Credit Facility”) and $4.95 billion of term loan facilities (the “New Term Loan Facilities”). The New Term Loan Facilities consist of a $1.0 billion Term Loan A tranche and a $3.95 billion Term Loan B tranche. The New Revolving Credit Facility and the borrowings under the Term Loan A tranche mature five years after the Acquisition Date, unless any of the 2020 Notes remain outstanding as of 91 days prior to their stated maturity, in which case the New Revolving Credit Facility and the borrowings under the Term Loan A tranche will mature at such time. The borrowings under the Term Loan B tranche mature seven years after the Acquisition Date. Upon and after the Acquisition Date, the New Senior Secured Credit Facilities are guaranteed by certain of our direct or indirect wholly-owned U.S. subsidiaries, including Family Dollar and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Credit Agreement Guarantors”). Upon and after the Acquisition Date, the New Senior Secured Credit Facilities are secured by a security interest in substantially all of our assets and those of the Credit Agreement Guarantors, subject to certain exceptions.

On June 11, 2015, the Escrow Issuer amended the terms of the New Senior Secured Credit Facilities to refinance the Term Loan B tranche with $3.3 billion of floating-rate Term B-1 Loans and $650.0 million of fixed-rate Term B-2 Loans. The loans under the Term Loan A tranche and the New Revolving Credit Facility bear interest at LIBOR plus 2.25% per annum (or a base rate plus 1.25%), the Term B-1 Loans of the New Senior Secured Credit Facilities bear interest at LIBOR plus 2.75% per annum (or a base rate plus 1.75%) subject to a "LIBOR floor" of 0.75%. The Term B-2 Loans bear interest at a fixed rate of 4.25%.

On January 26, 2016, we prepaid $1.0 billion of the $3.3 billion Term B-1 Loan. For complete terms of the Credit Facility and Term Loans please see "Note 6 - Long-Term Debt" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" beginning on page 63 of this Form 10-K.

Secured Senior Notes. We assumed the liability for $300.0 million of 5.0% senior notes due February 1, 2021 which were issued by Family Dollar on January 28, 2011 through a public offering. These unsecured notes became secured upon closing of the Acquisition. These notes are equally and ratably secured with the Term Loans.

Forgivable promissory note. In 2012, we entered into a promissory note with the state of Connecticut under which the state loaned us $7.0 million in connection with our acquisition, construction and installation of land, building, machinery and equipment for our distribution facility in Windsor, Connecticut. If certain performance targets are met, the loan and any accrued interest will be forgiven in fiscal 2017. If the performance targets are not met, the loan and accrued interest must be repaid over a five-year period beginning in fiscal 2017.

Interest on long-term borrowings. These amounts represent interest payments on the Acquisition Notes, Term Loans, Senior Secured Notes and Forgivable Promissory Note using the interest rates for each at January 30, 2016.

Commitments

Letters of credit and surety bonds. We are a party to three Letter of Credit Reimbursement and Security Agreements providing $120.0 million, $110.0 million and $100.0 million, respectively for letters of credit. Letters of credit are generally issued for the routine purchase of imported merchandise and we had approximately $210.1 million of purchases committed under these letters of credit at January 30, 2016.

We also have approximately $123.0 million of letters of credit outstanding that serve as collateral for our large-deductible insurance programs and $47.9 million of surety bonds outstanding primarily for certain utility payment obligations at some of our stores and self-insured insurance programs. Subsequent to year-end, amounts outstanding for stand-by letters of credit increased to $183.3 million as of February 10, 2016.

Technology assets. We have commitments totaling approximately $7.0 million to primarily purchase store technology assets and maintenance for our stores during 2016.

Telecommunication contracts. We have contracted for telecommunication services with contracts expiring in 2020. The total amount of these commitments is approximately $142.7 million.

Derivative Financial Instruments

In 2015, 2014 and 2013, we were party to fuel derivative contracts with third parties which included approximately 6.6 million, 1.6 million and 2.8 million gallons of diesel fuel, or approximately 36%, 10% and 20% of the Dollar Tree segment's domestic truckload fuel needs, respectively. These derivative contracts did not qualify for hedge accounting and therefore all changes in fair value for these derivatives are included in earnings.

Critical Accounting Policies

The preparation of financial statements requires the use of estimates. Certain of our estimates require a high level of judgment and have the potential to have a material effect on the financial statements if actual results vary significantly from those estimates. Following is a discussion of the estimates that we consider critical.

Inventory Valuation

As discussed in "Note 1 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" under the caption "Merchandise Inventories" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" beginning on page 48 of this Form 10-K, inventories at the distribution centers are stated at the lower of cost or market with cost determined on a weighted-average basis. Cost is assigned to store inventories using the retail inventory method on a weighted-average basis. Under the retail inventory method, the valuation of inventories at cost and the resulting gross margins are computed by applying a calculated cost-to-retail ratio to the retail value of inventories. The retail inventory method is an averaging method that is widely used in the retail industry and results in valuing inventories at lower of cost or market when markdowns are taken as a reduction of the retail value of inventories on a timely basis.

Inventory valuation methods require certain significant management estimates and judgments, including estimates of future merchandise markdowns and shrink, which significantly affect the ending inventory valuation at cost as well as the resulting gross margins. The averaging required in applying the retail inventory method and the estimates of shrink and markdowns could, under certain circumstances, result in costs not being recorded in the proper period.

We estimate our markdown reserve based on the consideration of a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, quantities of slow moving or seasonal carryover merchandise on hand, historical markdown statistics and future merchandising plans. The accuracy of our estimates can be affected by many factors, some of which are outside of our control, including changes in economic conditions and consumer buying trends. Historically, we have not experienced significant differences in our estimated reserve for markdowns compared with actual results.

Our accrual for shrink is based on the actual, historical shrink results of our most recent physical inventories adjusted, if necessary, for current economic conditions and business trends. These estimates are compared to actual results as physical inventory counts are taken and reconciled to the general ledger. Our physical inventory counts are generally taken between January and September of each year; therefore, the shrink accrual recorded at January 30, 2016 is based on estimated shrink for most of 2015, including the fourth quarter. We have not experienced significant fluctuations in historical shrink rates beyond approximately 10-20 basis points in our Dollar Tree segment for the last few years. However, we have sometimes experienced higher than typical shrink in acquired stores in the year following an acquisition. The amounts recorded in the current year reflect the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar segments’ historical results. We periodically adjust our shrink estimates to address these factors as they become apparent.

Our management believes that our application of the retail inventory method results in an inventory valuation that reasonably approximates cost and results in carrying inventory at the lower of cost or market each year on a consistent basis.

In our Family Dollar segment, we receive vendor support in the form of cash payments or allowances through a variety of reimbursements such as purchase discounts, cooperative advertising, markdowns, scandowns, and volume rebates. We have agreements with vendors setting forth the specific conditions for each allowance or payment. In accordance with ASC 605-50, "Revenue Recognition - Customer Payments and Incentives," depending on the arrangement, we either recognize the allowance as a reduction of current costs or recognize the benefit over the period the related merchandise is sold. If the payment is a reimbursement for costs incurred, it is offset against those related costs; otherwise, it is treated as a reduction to cost of goods sold.

Accrued Expenses

On a monthly basis, we estimate certain expenses in an effort to record those expenses in the period incurred. Certain expenses, such as legal reserves, require a high degree of judgment and our most material estimates include domestic freight expenses, self-insurance costs, store-level operating expenses, such as property taxes and utilities, and certain other expenses.

We are involved in numerous legal proceedings and claims. Our accruals, if any, related to these proceedings and claims are based on a determination of whether or not the loss is both probable and estimable. We review outstanding matters with external counsel to assess the probability of an unfavorable outcome and estimates of loss. We re-evaluate outstanding proceedings and claims each quarter or as new and significant information becomes available, and we adjust or establish accruals, if necessary. Our legal proceedings are described in "Note 5 - Commitments and Contingencies" under the caption "Contingencies" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" beginning on page 59 of this Form 10-K.

Our freight and store-level operating expenses are estimated based on current activity and historical trends and results. Our workers' compensation, general liability and health insurance accruals are recorded based on third-party actuarial valuations which we obtain at least annually. For our workers' compensation and general liability accruals, these actuarial valuations are estimates based on our historical loss development factors. For our health insurance accrual, the actuary provides an estimate based on historical claims and claim payment timing. Certain other expenses are estimated and recorded in the periods that management becomes aware of them. The related accruals are adjusted as management’s estimates change.

Differences in management's estimates and assumptions could result in expenses which are materially different from the calculated accruals. Our experience has been that some of our estimates are too high and others are too low. Historically, the net total of these differences has not had a material effect on our financial condition or results of operations.

Business Combinations-Purchase Price Allocation

For the Family Dollar acquisition, we allocated the purchase price to the various tangible and intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed, based on their estimated fair values, which are preliminary as of January 30, 2016. Determining the fair value of certain assets and liabilities is subjective in nature and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions, which are inherently uncertain. We engaged third party experts to assist in the determination of fair value for complex assets and liabilities. Many of the estimates and assumptions used to determine fair values, such as those used for intangible assets are made based on forecasted information and discount rates. In addition, the judgments made in determining the estimated fair value assigned to each class of assets acquired and liabilities assumed, as well as asset lives, can materially impact our results of operations.

Goodwill and Other Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets

Indefinite-lived intangible assets are initially recorded at their fair values. These assets, including goodwill, are not amortized but are evaluated annually for impairment. An additional evaluation is performed if events or circumstances indicate that impairment could have occurred. Such events or circumstances could include, but are not limited to, significant negative industry or economic trends, unanticipated changes in the competitive environment and a significant sustained decline in the market price of our stock.

For purposes of our goodwill impairment evaluation, the reporting units are Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and Dollar Tree Canada. Goodwill has been assigned to the reporting units based on prior business combinations related to the brands. We estimate the fair value of our reporting units using projected future cash flows that are discounted using a weighted-average cost of capital analysis that reflects current market conditions. Management judgment is a significant factor in the goodwill impairment evaluation process. The computations require management to make estimates and assumptions. Actual values may differ significantly from these judgments, particularly if there are significant adverse changes in the operating environments for our reporting units. Critical assumptions that are used as part of these evaluations include:

•The potential future cash flows of the reporting unit. The projections use management's estimates of economic and

market conditions over the projected period, including growth rates in revenue, gross margin and expense. The cash flows are based on our most recent business operating plans and various growth rates have been assumed for years beyond the current business plan period. We believe that the assumptions and rates used in our 2015 impairment evaluations are reasonable; however, variations in the assumptions and rates could result in significantly different estimates of fair value.

•

Selection of an appropriate discount rate. Calculating the present value of future cash flows requires the selection of an appropriate discount rate, which is based on a weighted-average cost of capital analysis. The discount rate is affected by changes in short-term interest rates and long-term yield as well as variances in the typical capital structure of marketplace participants. Given current economic conditions, it is possible that the discount rate will fluctuate in the near term. The weighted-average cost of capital used to discount the cash flows for our reporting units ranged from 10.0% to 13.3% for the 2015 analysis.

Indefinite-lived intangible assets, such as the Family Dollar tradename, are not subject to amortization but are reviewed at least annually for impairment. The indefinite-lived intangible asset impairment evaluations are performed by comparing the fair value of the indefinite-lived intangible assets to their carrying values. We estimate the fair value of tradename intangible assets based on an income approach using the relief-from-royalty method. This approach is dependent upon a number of factors, including estimates of future growth and trends, royalty rates, discount rates and other variables. We base our fair value estimates on assumptions we believe to be reasonable, but which are unpredictable and inherently uncertain. Our impairment evaluation of indefinite-lived intangible assets did not result in an impairment charge.

Income Taxes

On a quarterly basis, we estimate our required income tax liability and assess the recoverability of our deferred tax assets. Our income taxes payable are estimated based on currently enacted tax rates and estimated state apportionment factors. Management assesses the recoverability of deferred tax assets based on the availability of carrybacks of future deductible amounts and management’s projections for future taxable income. We cannot guarantee that we will generate taxable income in future years. Historically, we have not experienced significant differences in our estimates of our tax accrual.

In addition, we have a recorded liability for our estimate of uncertain tax positions taken or expected to be taken in our tax returns. Judgment is required in evaluating the application of federal and state tax laws, including relevant case law, and assessing whether it is more likely than not that a tax position will be sustained on examination and, if so, judgment is also required as to the measurement of the amount of tax benefit that will be realized upon settlement with the taxing authority. Income tax expense is adjusted in the period in which new information about a tax position becomes available or the final outcome differs from the amounts recorded. We believe that our liability for uncertain tax positions is adequate. For further discussion of our changes in reserves during 2015, see "Note 4 - Income Taxes" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" beginning on page 56 of this Form 10-K.

Seasonality and Quarterly Fluctuations

We experience seasonal fluctuations in our net sales, comparable store net sales, operating income and net income and expect this trend to continue. Our results of operations may also fluctuate significantly as a result of a variety of factors, including:


•	shifts in the timing of certain holidays, especially Easter;


•	the timing of new store openings;


•	the net sales contributed by new stores;


•	changes in our merchandise mix; and


•	competition.

Our highest sales periods are the Christmas and Easter seasons. Easter was observed on April 20, 2014 and on April 5, 2015, and will be observed on March 27, 2016. We believe that the earlier Easter in 2016 could result in a $10.0 million decrease in sales in the first quarter of 2016 as compared to the first quarter of 2015. We generally realize a disproportionate amount of our net sales and of our operating and net income during the fourth quarter. In anticipation of increased sales activity during these months, we purchase substantial amounts of inventory and hire a significant number of temporary employees to supplement our continuing store staff. Our operating results, particularly operating and net income, could suffer if our net sales were below seasonal norms during the fourth quarter or during the Easter season for any reason, including merchandise delivery delays due to receiving or distribution problems, changes in consumer sentiment or inclement weather.

Our unaudited results of operations for the eight most recent quarters are shown in a table in "Note 12 - Quarterly Financial Information (Unaudited)" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" beginning on page 75 of this Form 10-K.

Inflation and Other Economic Factors

Our ability to provide quality merchandise at a fixed price in our Dollar Tree stores and on a profitable basis may be subject to economic factors and influences that we cannot control. Consumer spending could decline because of economic pressures, including unemployment and rising fuel prices. Reductions in consumer confidence and spending could have an adverse effect on our sales. National or international events, including war or terrorism, could lead to disruptions in economies in the United States or in foreign countries. These and other factors could increase our merchandise costs, fuel costs and other costs that are critical to our operations, such as shipping and wage rates.

Shipping Costs. Trans-Pacific shipping rates are negotiated with individual freight lines and are subject to fluctuation based on shipping industry market conditions and fuel costs. We can give no assurances as to the final rate trends for 2016, as we are in the early stages of our negotiations.

Minimum Wage. Multiple states and local jurisdictions passed legislation that increased their minimum wages in 2016 and 2017 and the federal government has made indications that it may consider increasing the federal minimum wage. As a result, we believe our expenses will increase except to the extent that we are able to offset our payroll costs with savings in our operations.

Currency Fluctuations. We are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates as a result of our operations in Canada.

Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

We are exposed to various types of market risk in the normal course of our business, including the impact of interest rate changes and diesel fuel cost changes. We may enter into interest rate or diesel fuel swaps to manage exposure to interest rate and diesel fuel price changes. We do not enter into derivative instruments for any purpose other than cash flow hedging and we do not hold derivative instruments for trading purposes.

Interest Rate Risk

In conjunction with the Acquisition, we entered into new financing arrangements as described in "Note 6 - Long-Term Debt" in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" beginning on page 63 of this Form 10-K. Borrowings under the Term Loan A bear interest based on LIBOR plus 2.25% and borrowings under Term Loan B-1 bear interest at the higher of LIBOR plus 2.75% or 3.50%. As such, these debt instruments expose us to market risk for changes in interest rates. As of January 30, 2016, approximately 45% of our total debt includes variable interest rates. However, the terms of the Term Loan B-1 limit our exposure to short-term interest rate fluctuations due to the existence of the interest rate floor of 3.50%. As current monthly LIBOR rates plus the 2.75% spread are below the interest rate floor of 3.50%, Term Loan B-1 effectively has a fixed interest rate unless monthly LIBOR rates were to increase above 0.75%. A 1.0% increase in the LIBOR rate would result in an annual increase in interest expense related to our variable rate debt of $25.2 million.

Diesel Fuel Cost Risk

In order to manage fluctuations in cash flows resulting from changes in diesel fuel costs, we entered into fuel derivative contracts with third parties. We hedged 6.6 million, 1.6 million and 2.8 million gallons of diesel fuel in 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. These hedges represented approximately 36%, 10% and 20% of the Dollar Tree segment's total domestic truckload fuel needs in 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Under these contracts, we pay the third party a fixed price for diesel fuel and receive variable diesel fuel prices at amounts approximating current diesel fuel costs, thereby creating the economic equivalent of a fixed-rate obligation. These derivative contracts do not qualify for hedge accounting and therefore all changes in fair value for these derivatives are included in earnings. The fair value of these contracts as of January 30, 2016 was a liability of $0.8 million.

Item 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA



Index to Consolidated Financial Statements	Page

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm	42

Consolidated Income Statements for the years ended
January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015 and February 1, 2014	43

Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income
for the years ended January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015 and
February 1, 2014	44

Consolidated Balance Sheets as of January 30, 2016 and
January 31, 2015	45

Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity for the years
ended January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015 and
February 1, 2014	46

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended
January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015 and February 1, 2014	47

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements	48

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

The Board of Directors and Shareholders

Dollar Tree, Inc.:

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Dollar Tree, Inc. (the Company) as of January 30, 2016 and January 31, 2015, and the related consolidated income statements, and statements of comprehensive income, shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended January 30, 2016. These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audits.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of January 30, 2016 and January 31, 2015, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three‑year period ended January 30, 2016, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of January 30, 2016, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, and our report dated March 28, 2016 expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.

/s/ KPMG LLP

Norfolk, Virginia

March 28, 2016

DOLLAR TREE, INC.

CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENTS



	Year Ended
	January 30,		January 31,		February 1,
(in millions, except per share data)	2016		2015		2014
Net sales	$	15,498.4	$	8,602.2	$	7,840.3
Cost of sales	10,841.7		5,568.2		5,050.5
Gross profit	4,656.7		3,034.0		2,789.8
Selling, general and administrative expenses	3,607.0		1,993.8		1,819.5
Operating income	1,049.7		1,040.2		970.3
Interest expense, net	599.4		80.1		15.4
Other expense, net	2.1		5.9		0.6
Income before income taxes	448.2		954.2		954.3
Provision for income taxes	165.8		355.0		357.6
Net income	$	282.4	$	599.2	$	596.7
Basic net income per share	$	1.27	$	2.91	$	2.74
Diluted net income per share	$	1.26	$	2.90	$	2.72

See accompanying Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

DOLLAR TREE, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME



	Year Ended
	January 30,			January 31,			February 1,
(in millions)	2016			2015			2014
Net income	$	282.4		$	599.2		$	596.7

Foreign currency translation adjustments	(9.0		)	(17.2		)	(15.4		)

Total comprehensive income	$	273.4		$	582.0		$	581.3

See accompanying Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

DOLLAR TREE, INC.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS



(in millions, except share and per share data)	January 30, 2016			January 31, 2015
ASSETS
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents	$	736.1		$	864.1
Short-term investments	4.0			—
Merchandise inventories, net	2,885.5			1,035.7
Current deferred tax assets, net	—			28.3
Other current assets	310.3			66.5
Total current assets	3,935.9			1,994.6
Property, plant and equipment, net	3,125.5			1,210.5
Assets available for sale	12.1			—
Goodwill	5,021.7			164.6
Deferred tax assets, net	—			30.6
Favorable lease rights, net	569.4			0.3
Tradename intangible asset	3,100.0			—
Other intangible assets, net	5.8			1.2
Other assets	130.8			90.9
Total assets	$	15,901.2		$	3,492.7
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current liabilities:
Current portion of long-term debt	$	108.0		$	—
Accounts payable	1,251.9			433.6
Other current liabilities	722.6			385.3
Income taxes payable	12.9			42.7
Total current liabilities	2,095.4			861.6
Long-term debt, net, excluding current portion	7,238.4			682.7
Unfavorable lease rights, net	149.3			—
Deferred tax liabilities, net	1,586.6			—
Income taxes payable, long-term	71.4			6.5
Other liabilities	353.2			156.9
Total liabilities	11,494.3			1,707.7
Commitments and contingencies
Shareholders' equity:
Common stock, par value $0.01; 600,000,000 shares
authorized, 234,968,078 and 205,683,113 shares
issued and outstanding at January 30, 2016
and January 31, 2015, respectively	2.4			2.1
Additional paid-in capital	2,391.2			43.0
Accumulated other comprehensive loss	(43.1		)	(34.1		)
Retained earnings	2,056.4			1,774.0
Total shareholders' equity	4,406.9			1,785.0
Total liabilities and shareholders' equity	$	15,901.2		$	3,492.7

See accompanying Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

DOLLAR TREE, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY

YEARS ENDED JANUARY 30, 2016, JANUARY 31, 2015, AND FEBRUARY 1, 2014



(in millions)	Common Stock Shares	Common Stock		Additional Paid-in Capital		Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss			Retained Earnings		Share- holders' Equity
Balance at February 2, 2013	224.6	$	2.2	$	0.3	$	(1.5	)	$	1,666.3	$	1,667.3
Net income	—	—		—		—			596.7		596.7
Total other comprehensive loss	—	—		—		(15.4		)	—		(15.4		)
Issuance of stock under Employee Stock
Purchase Plan	0.1	—		4.8		—			—		4.8
Exercise of stock options, including