Stater Bros. profit more than doubles

Stater Bros. Holdings Inc., the Colton-based grocery store company, said profit in its latest quarter more than doubled to $13.5 million from $6.2 million a year earlier. Sales for the second quarter ended March 25 rose slightly to $866.1 million from $863.8 million a year earlier.

Same-store sales rose 1.5% after adjusting for the timing of Christmas, the only day of the year when Stater Bros. supermarkets are closed.

Stater operates 162 supermarkets in Southern California. It signed a contract with the grocery workers union this year and would be unaffected by the efforts of the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons, the three largest grocery chains in the Southland, to reach a new contract.