Brown Shoe Company, Inc. announced retail sales at Famous Footwear, the 923-store chain selling brand-name family footwear for less, increased 2.5 percent to $109,500,000 compared to $106,800,000 for the same period last year (ended January 5, 2002). Same-store sales declined slightly by 0.9 percent.
Sales at Brown Shoe’s domestic Naturalizer retail division, a 231-store chain selling the Naturalizer brand of women’s footwear, were $12,600,000 in December on a base of 79 fewer stores compared to $14,400,000 last December. Same-store sales increased 6.2 percent.
“Margins at Famous Footwear again ran ahead of plan as the chain continues to benefit from an improved inventory mix and higher margins on current-season footwear,” said Brown Shoe CEO Ron Fromm. “The slight decline in same-store sales was a result of depressed consumer traffic over this holiday season.”
Naturalizer same-store sales increases were driven by double-digit gains in its tailored-casual and tailored-dress footwear.
“Overall, our business is strong at wholesale; Naturalizer Retail — with its well designed fall/winter collection — is posting excellent gains; and Famous Footwear’s gross margins continue to improve while inventories remain clean. Accordingly, we are increasing our guidance for earnings per share to $0.34-$0.39 from $0.29-$0.34 for the fourth quarter,” said Fromm.
As a result, Brown Shoe estimates its earnings per share for fiscal year 2002 will be in the range of $2.35 to $2.40, versus its prior guidance range of $2.30 to $2.35.
Year-to-date sales for Famous Footwear were up 3.3 percent to $1,017,500,000 compared to $985,100,000 for the same 48-week period last year, with same-store sales down 1.0 percent.
