Publix has signed a lease for its next Kentucky location on the corner of Nicholasville Road and Brannon Road in Nicholasville, according to multiple reports.
The Lakeland, Fla.-based grocer will open a nearly 55,000-square-foot store with an adjacent Publix Liquors. The company has not set an opening date, and construction has not yet begun.
A new Kroger Marketplace will open nearby at Rose Garland Place.
Publix continues expanding into Kroger territory in Kentucky. Earlier this year, the company announced three more locations in Richmond, Versailles and Bowling Green.
By year’s end, Publix plans to operate about a dozen stores in Kentucky. The retailer already operates six locations in the state, including three in Louisville. The first Publix in Kentucky opened in Louisville in 2024. Additional stores operate in Walton and Cold Spring.
Publix Super Markets posted a rare earnings decline for its fiscal first quarter, citing sales pressure from the new Medicare drug pricing program.
The retailer posted net income of $794 million for the three months through March 28, a 21.5% decline from $1 billion in the year-ago first quarter. The company attributed most of the decline to unrealized losses on equity securities. However, excluding those losses, net income still declined 3% in the first quarter of 2026 to about $1.1 billion, compared with $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2025.
Sales for the first quarter of 2026 totaled $16.1 billion, a 2% increase over year-ago levels. The company attributed the growth primarily to new store openings, partially offset by a decrease in prescription drug sales. Comparable store sales remained unchanged from year-ago levels.
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