Brown Shoe Company, Inc. announced July retail sales at Famous Footwear were $86.1 million for the four-week period ended July 31, 2004 compared to $85.1 million for the same period last year. Same-store sales for July decreased 2.0%.
Famous Footwear's second quarter sales (for the 13 weeks ended July 31, 2004) were $269,800,000 compared to $268,900,000 for the same period last year. Same-store sales for the second quarter were down 2.5 percent. Year-to- date sales for Famous Footwear for the 26-week period increased 2.2 percent to $541,900,000 from $530,000,000, and were flat on a same-store basis.
Retail sales at Brown Shoe's Naturalizer retail division, a 380- store chain selling the Naturalizer brand of women's footwear in the U.S. and Canada, were $13,600,000 for the month, compared to $13,200,000 last July. Same-store sales for July decreased 0.6 percent.
At this point, the company believes that its second quarter earnings per share will likely fall short of its previously estimated diluted earnings per share range of $0.45 – $0.50 due to lower than anticipated same-store sales and a shortfall in wholesale shipments. Brown Shoe is scheduled to report its second quarter earnings on August 18, before the market opens.
“Our retail business results in June and July were below expectations,” said Brown Shoe Chairman and CEO Ron Fromm. “On the wholesale front, as we previously reported, our children's and Bass businesses have been below plan. In addition, at month-end we were unable to fully ship product orders due to a shortage of available trucks in the central Midwest and rail/trucking delays at West Coast ports.”
MONTH AND YEAR-TO-DATE SALES (millions)
Store
-for-
Store
FY 2004 FY 2003 Percent Percent Stores Open
(7/31/04) (8/02/03) Change Change 7/31/04 vs 8/2/03
July - Famous
Footwear $ 86.1 $ 85.1 1.2 (2.0) 915 909
2nd Q - Famous
Footwear 269.8 268.9 0.3 (2.5)
Y-T-D - Famous
Footwear 541.9 530.0 2.2 0.0
