Famous Footwear September Comps Up 3.2%

Brown Shoe Company, Inc. announced September retail sales at Famous Footwear increased 4.5 percent to $95,500,000 for the five-week period ended Oct. 4, 2003, compared to $91,400,000 for the same period last year (ended Oct. 5, 2002). Same-store sales for September were up 3.2 percent.

Famous Footwear sales for the first eight months of fiscal 2003, were $761,400,000, a 0.1 percent increase compared to $760,700,000 for the year-ago period. Same-store sales for the 35 weeks were down 2.2 percent.

“Sales gains in September were encouraging, and on-target with our plans for the third quarter,” said Brown Shoe Chairman and CEO Ron Fromm. “The rebound in same-store sales that started with August's back-to-school marketing and merchandising programs, was sustained throughout September with strong gross margins. Looking at category strengths: Our women's business turned in a great performance, driven by fashion styles including dress, junior casual and clogs; athletic sales were even with last year.

    MONTH AND YEAR-TO-DATE SALES (millions)
                                               Same-
                                               Store
                      FY 2003   FY 2002      %        %       Stores Open
                     (10/4/03) (10/5/02)  Change   Change  10/4/03 vs. 10/5/02
    Sept. -Famous
     Footwear         $  95.5   $  91.4     4.5      3.2     899         917
    Y-T-D -Famous
     Footwear           761.4     760.7     0.1     (2.2)

    Sept. -Naturalizer   13.8      14.2    (2.8)     3.4     210         234
    Y-T-D -Naturalizer   80.9      91.9   (12.0)     1.2

Store Openings for the month

Famous Footwear opened new stores in the following markets: Marlton, NJ; West Cobb, GA; Riverhead, NY; Phoenix, AZ; Wenatchee, WA