Welcome to the twenty twenty Annual Meeting for Dollar General Corporation. Our host for today's call is Todd Bezos, CEO. At this time, all participants will be in a listen only mode. I will now turn the call over to your host, Mr. Vazos.
You may begin.
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Dollar General's twenty twenty Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm Todd Vazos, CEO, and I'll serve as Chairman of this meeting, which I now call to order. Traditionally, our annual shareholder meeting is held in a public forum in Goodlitsville, Tennessee.
However, as a result of health and safety concerns arising from COVID-nineteen pandemic and following both federal and state guidelines designed to slow the spread of the virus, we made the decision to hold this year's meeting virtually. Although we do not expect any technical difficulties today, in the event we lose audio or webcast connection, which does not resolve within a reasonable period of time, please look for updates on our Investor Relations website. Let me first thank all of our employees who are working hard to serve the underserved customer in the communities where we do business. As one of America's essential retailers, we're proud to be there for our customers and communities in times like this when we are needed the most. Now let's turn to introductions.
All of my fellow board members are participating in today's meeting, including Mike Halbert, our chairman of the board, Warren Bryant, Pat Phili Crichell, Tim McGuire, Bill Rhodes, our newest Board member, Deborah Sandler and Ralph Santana. Our executive officers are also participating, including Jeff Owen, Chief Operating Officer John Garrett, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mike Hendy, Executive Vice President of Global Supply Chain Jason Reeser, Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer Steve Sunderland, executive vice president of store operations Rhonda Taylor, executive vice president general counsel Carmen Winckoff, executive vice president and chief information officer Anita Elliott, senior vice president and chief accounting officer and Kathy Rairdon, senior vice president and chief people officer. I'd like to thank our board of directors and our executive officers for their dedication, teamwork, and leadership at Dollar General. Finally, Sam Devane and Josh Truschley are participating today on behalf of Ernst and Young, our independent registered public accounting firm, and they are available to answer questions later in the meeting. I'll now turn the meeting over to Christine Connolly, our corporate secretary, to review the meeting announcements.
Good morning. This meeting is being held pursuant to the notice provided to shareholders of record beginning on 04/02/2020. A revised notice to reflect the virtual nature of the meeting was issued by press release on 05/05/2020, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as additional soliciting material, and posted on our Investor Relations website, all as contemplated in the initial notice of meeting. The record date for determining shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting is 03/19/2020. Only shareholders of record at the close of business on the record date may vote or submit questions at this meeting.
The agenda and the rules of conduct for the meeting, along with the 2019 annual report and the 2020 proxy materials, are available on the annual meeting website. In addition, the shareholders list as of the record date is available for inspection on the annual meeting website by shareholders of record. Our board has appointed Broadridge to serve as the inspector of election. Broadridge has informed us that there are present today in person or by proxy, the holders of not less than the majority of the shares issued and outstanding on the record date. Having a quorum, polls are now open.
If you have previously voted, you do not need to vote again unless you want to change your vote. If you have not already voted or you wish to change your vote, please do so by clicking vote here on the annual meeting website before the polls close after the end of discussion of today's voting items. We will take up to fifteen minutes for questions on the voting items and up to fifteen minutes for the general question and answer session. All questions must be submitted in writing by following the instructions on the annual meeting website. There is a two question per shareholder limit on each voting item and a two question per shareholder limit during the general Q and A session.
As a reminder, only questions submitted before the polls close will be addressed during the general Q and A session. Mr. Bezos will now introduce the items of business.
There are five items being voted upon today as described in the meeting notice and in the proxy materials. I'll introduce each item and then answer any related questions that have been submitted. The first item is the election of the eight directors who are standing for election as described in our proxy material to hold office until the next annual meeting and until their successors are duly elected and qualified. As a reminder, Sandy miss Sandy Cochran, who was initially listed as a director nominee in the proxy statement, subsequently withdrew her nomination. I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank miss Cochran for her dedicated service to our company.
The second item of business is the advisory vote to approve the compensation of Dollar General's named executive officers as set forth in the proxy statement. The third item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal twenty twenty. The fourth item of business is to approve amendments to the company's charter to replace the supermajority voting requirements with the majority voting requirements described in the proxy statement. And the fifth and final item of business is to approve an amendment to the company's bylaws to replace the supermajority voting requirement with the majority voting requirement described in the proxy statement. No other business was submitted pursuant to our bylaws for consideration at this meeting.
Before we address questions pertaining to the voting items, let me remind shareholders that this is the final opportunity to submit or change our vote as the polls will close immediately following this discussion. To do so, click vote here on the annual meeting website. This is also the final opportunity to submit any written questions for the general q and a session that will follow my business report. As a reminder, to submit a question, please type your questions into the ask a question field on the annual meeting website and click submit. Donnie Lau, our vice president investor strategy will now read questions we've received.
Donnie, will you please read the first question?
Thank you, Todd. It appears that no questions have been submitted relating to the voting items.
K. Thank you, Donnie. The polls are now closed. Christine, will you please announce the primary the preliminary, excuse me, voting results?
Based on the preliminary report of the inspector of election, each of the eight nominees standing for election as described in the proxy materials and presented as the first item of business has received a majority of the votes cast. The compensation of Dollar General's named executive officers as described in the proxy statement and presented as the second item of business has been approved on an advisory basis. The appointment of Ernst and Young as our independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal twenty twenty, which was presented as the third item of business, has been ratified. The charter amendments, were presented as the fourth item of business, have been approved, and the bylaw amendment, which was presented as the fifth item of business, has been approved. The final certified voting results will be reported in a Form eight k within four business days of this meeting.
Before we turn to the business report, we would like to caution you that today's comments may contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws regarding our strategy, plans, intentions, expectations, or beliefs about future occurrences or results, including, but not limited to, statements regarding our future potential, key operating priorities and initiatives, and planned investments. The words can, may, will, confident, goal, vision, looking ahead, focused on, continue, believe, plan, expect, intend, should, committed to, long term, future, aim or opportunity, and similar expressions generally identify forward looking statements. Actual results might differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements as a result of a variety of important factors, including but not limited to those described in the Risk Factors section of our Form 10 ks filed with the SEC on 03/19/2020, and other factors that may be discussed today. We caution against undue reliance on these forward looking statements, which speak only as of today's date. The company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise these statements, except as may be required by law.
Thank you for attending today, and we appreciate your flexibility and being with us during these unprecedented times. Our thoughts are with all those who have been impacted by the COVID nineteen pandemic. We deeply appreciate all those serving in different ways on the front lines and particularly our associates who are working so diligently to take care of our customers at a time when they need us most. Our mission at Dollar General is serving others, and it is through that lens that we approach all of our decisions, including how we support our employees and customers during these difficult times. To that end, we have taken swift and proactive action to keep them safe while keeping stores open and running with minimal disruption.
We closed an hour early to allow greater time for stocking and enhanced cleaning protocols, distributed masks and gloves to all employees, implemented social distancing measures to in our stores, DCs, and the store support center. And we have completed the installation of approximately 40,000 plexiglass barriers at checkout across the entire chain. We also dedicated the first hour of each store's day to seniors and provided a discount to first responders, medical personnel, and National Guard members. To further support heightened demand, we have hired over 50,000 people since mid March, nearly double our normal hiring rate. We also provided our employees with enhanced benefits and resources, including expanded paid leave and greater access to telehealth services and invested approximately $60,000,000 in employee appreciation bonuses.
And we contributed to our employee assistant foundation to assist our coworkers during times of need. All of these actions have helped ensure the continuity of our business at a time when customers need us most. During our fiscal twenty twenty first quarter earnings call tomorrow morning, we'll be sharing additional details on our Q1 financial results. Today, I'm honored to address you at our twenty twenty Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Dollar General has been serving our customers for more than eighty years, and we remain focused on delivering value and convenience in communities across the country.
As a mature retailer in growth mode, we continue to lead our channel in innovation, and we're proud of our many accomplishments in 02/2019. During fiscal two thousand and nineteen, we completed more than 2,000 real estate projects, celebrated the opening of our 16,000 store, began shipping from our Amsterdam, New York distribution center as well as four DG Fresh distribution facilities, and executed more than 2,000,000,000 customer transactions, all while continuing to invest in the business, which we expect to drive profitable growth over the long term. Our vision for the future of Dollar General remains clear, to strengthen our business and continue on a path of sustainable, profitable growth while keeping our customers at the center of everything we do. We continue to focus on our four key operating priorities. Our first operating priority is driving profitable sales growth.
We are dedicated to providing our customers with value and convenience every day. To drive continued growth, we have a robust set of sales driving and margin enhancing initiatives in place, including cooler door expansion, private brand enhancements, global sourcing efforts, and distribution and transportation efficiencies. Our second operating priority is capturing growth opportunities. Our high return, low risk real estate model is a core strength of the business. We have continued to innovate with a variety of store formats, which has allowed us to grow the number of communities we are able to serve.
We have executed thousands of these real estate projects in recent years, and we believe we are well positioned to capture further growth opportunities with new and existing customers and geographies. Our third operating priority is enhancing our position as a low cost operator. We have employed a save to serve approach across the organization, which has resulted in significant savings. We continue to refine these efforts in order to drive greater efficiencies and further reduce costs. Our fourth operating priority is investing in our people as a competitive advantage.
We have made significant investments in wages, benefits, and training opportunities, which continue to resonate with our employees. In addition, we prioritize engagement with our teams to learn how we can continue to enhance our position as an employer of choice. Ultimately, we believe that the opportunity to build a long term career with a growing retailer is our most important currency to attract and retain talent. In 02/2019, we also made significant progress advancing our long term strategic initiatives, which we believe will help drive future growth at Dollar General. The first strategic initiative is our nonconsumable offering.
This merchandising strategy brings a bold, new, and expanded assortment in key nonconsumable categories such as home, domestics, housewares, party, and occasion. We expanded this initiative to approximately 2,400 stores by the end of two thousand and nineteen, and we look to improve both sales and margin while enhancing the treasure hunt experience for our customers. The second strategic initiative I wanna highlight is DG Fresh, which is a strategic multiphase shift to self distribution of frozen and refrigerated goods. This initiative is primarily aimed at reducing overall product cost on our frozen and refrigerated item items while also driving higher on shelf availability and providing for greater product assortment over time. We began serving more than 6,000 stores in 2019 from our four DG Fresh facilities, and we are excited about the continued rollout in 2020.
Our third strategic initiative is digital. Our digital strategy is focused on using technology to further enhance our customers' in store experience. We are building a digital ecosystem that is specifically tailored to providing our core customer with even more convenient, frictionless, and personalized shopping options. These these these options can includes, excuse me, digital coupons, shopping list, and cart calculator features, as well as DG GO, our shop and scan feature, which was available in approximately 750 stores at the 2019. Toward the 2019, we launched a pilot of DG pickup, which is our our buy online, pick up in the store offering.
As we continue to innovate as the digital leader in our channel, we believe we can offer even greater convenience to our customers. Our fourth strategic initiative is fast track, which is a two pronged approach to increasing labor productivity in our stores, enhancing customer convenience, and further improving on shelf availability. The first key component of Fast Track involves streamlining the stocking process in our stores, which we call one touch unloading. We completed the rolltainer optimization portion of this phase at all distribution centers in 2019. We also launched a self checkout pilot in 2019, which is the second component of Fast Track.
We believe this option will drive greater convenience for our customers and even more efficiencies for our associates in the store. We continue to innovate from a position of strength, and we are very excited about these four strategic initiatives as we look to continue driving long term growth. Now let me share with you some of the financial highlights for fiscal twenty nineteen. Net sales increased 8.3% to $27,800,000,000 Same store sales grew 3.9% over fiscal twenty eighteen, marking our thirtieth consecutive year of same store sales growth. Operating profit increased 8.8% to $2,300,000,000 We reported net income of $1,700,000,000 and diluted earnings per share increased 11.2 to $6.64 Our cash flow from operations increased 4.4% to $2,200,000,000 We allocated our cash to enhance long term shareholder value in many ways.
First, we invested $785,000,000 in capital expenditures to grow and improve our operations. And second, we returned $1,500,000,000 in capital to shareholders through the repurchase of 8,300,000.0 shares of our common stock and the payment of quarterly cash dividends. In fiscal twenty nineteen, we opened nine seventy five new stores, including celebrating our 16,000 store in Panama City, Florida. We also remodeled ten twenty four stores and relocated 100 stores. We also began shipping from our newest distribution center in Amsterdam, New York, as well as four DG Fresh distribution facilities in fiscal twenty nineteen.
We are very proud of our growth in 2019 and excited about the growth opportunities ahead of us in 2020. During 2019, we continue to invest in the business from a position of strength. We are continuing to prioritize high return growth projects as the best use of our capital, which includes new store expansion and other real real estate projects such as remodels, relocations, and the infrastructure needed to support future growth. Beyond real estate, we are executing on multiple strategic initiatives that we believe will enhance our competitive position and drive long term shareholder value. As always, our customer remains at the center of everything we do.
We are devoted to delivering our hallmark value and convenient proposition to her by providing everyday low prices on the right products in nearby locations. Our people are our greatest competitive advantage, and we are committed to investing in their growth and development. At the 2019, approximately 143,000 talented and dedicated Dollar General employees were serving customers in their communities across The United States. It is in challenging times, I think our people shine the brightest, and we are extremely proud of the work that they do every day to serve our customers. Our investments in our people are paying dividends across the organization.
And in 2019, we saw our lowest store manager turnover on record. And just a couple of months ago, I'm pleased to note that Dollar General was recognized as number one in Training Magazine's top one twenty five list for the second consecutive year. My most sincere appreciation and thanks go out to Dollar General's employees who fulfill our mission of serving others each and every day. Dollar General's culture remains rooted in our mission of serving others. This culture is the bedrock of our strategy for success, and we are dedicated to making a real and lasting difference in the lives of our customers we serve and the communities we call home.
During 2019, Dollar General and our foundations donated more than $17,000,000 to charitable causes with a primary focus on uplifting and empowering individuals of all ages through literacy and basic education. Since its inception in 1993, the DG Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $170,000,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations, and more than 11,000,000 individuals have received assistance. We also invited our customers to join us in helping individuals in need through in store campaigns for organizations, including St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and the American Red Cross. We are grateful to all parties for their participate that participate in these efforts.
In closing, I want to reiterate, we remain focused on the health and safety of our employees and customers as our top priority. We are mindful of all those who have been impacted by COVID nineteen, and we are grateful for all those serving on the front lines, whether in hospitals or in the stores and distribution centers of essential retailers such as Dollar General. Looking ahead, we are confident that our unique business model combined with focused strategy and strong track record of execution will allow us to continue to deliver everyday value and convenience to our customers and create long term value for our shareholders. Thank you for your investment in Dollar General. We appreciate your continued support.
The business of the meeting is now adjourned. At this time, we'll answer any written questions that were submitted before or during the meeting prior to closing of the polls. Donnie, will you please read the first question? Thank you, Todd. Before we
get into questions, I'll start with a statement that has been submitted on behalf of the campaign for healthier solutions. The statement is as follows. We appreciate the constant communication and ongoing collaboration with Dollar General. However, we both know there's still more work to do. The campaign for healthier solutions asked that Dollar General pass a comprehensive chemicals policy that will protect its frontline workers, its consumers, and its shareholders.
The campaign would like to have a solid commitment from Dollar General to continue working with us in helping you establish a comprehensive chemicals policy which will better protect our health and environment. Moving to questions we've received. We have a number of questions related to our 2019 chemical policy where we are requiring the elimination of certain chemicals from certain products by the 2022. These questions are centered around the following items. How is communication going with suppliers?
How many suppliers have committed to removing the eight specified chemicals? What additional actions are you taking to eliminate more chemicals from your products? Next steps for tackling this? And how will Dollar General share its progress with with shareholders and consumers?
Thank you for the question. Overall, we're committed to selling safe, effective, and affordable products that meet or exceed the company's quality and performance standards, as well as legal and regulatory requirements. As Donnie noted, we're proud to have issued our new chemical policy in December 2019, and we'll be revising the list of products and chemicals covered by this policy on an annual basis. Also, we have a number of other measures in place, including a product safety testing program to provide assurance that the company's private label and imported products either meet or exceed federal and or state regulatory standards. We continuously analyze what, if anything, we should be doing to further enhance our program.
And then lastly, progress can be found in our annual serving others report 2019 version will be posted to the website shortly.
The next two questions are regarding pursuing locally sourced product, specifically in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The questions are, will Dollar General source healthy, locally grown food starting with four stores in the South Valley neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico? And will Dollar General move towards solidifying the relationship with the local food solutions and commit to sourcing from the agricultural collaborative in Albuquerque?
Thank you for the question. I'll start by saying that Dollar General's DG Fresh initiative is the foundation and will enhance our ability to expand the availability of produce into a larger number of stores over time. As we said many times, our organization employs a test and learn mentality, allows us to work through potential issues in a small number of stores before rolling them out more broadly. The next couple of years will be very important for this initiative as we hope to use lessons learned along the way to determine if there's a cost effective way to carry produce in a larger number of stores. This includes whether it might make sense in certain areas to buy locally.
In the meantime, we also continue to engage with a variety of partners, including local partners in our communities to explore efficient ways to carry produce where we can.
The final question is, as you may know, Johnson and Johnson just agreed to stop producing its talcum powder because it has been linked to cancer, particularly in women. Knowing how this product affects women, I would like to know if Dollar General will promise not to sell Johnson and Johnson talcum powder.
Ian, thank you for the question. First off, let me say we do not carry any baby powder products that contain talcum, including Johnson and Johnson branded products. As I noted earlier, Dollar General is committed to selling safe and effective affordable products that meet or exceed our company's quality and performance standards, as well as legal and regulatory requirements. And we are committed to thoroughly investigating product safety concerns and addressing them in a timely and effective manner.
Thank you, Todd. There are no further questions in the queue.
Well, you, Donnie, and thank all of you for your attendance today. And again, thank you for your investment in Dollar General.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.