Skechers USA Inc. announced that it is temporarily closing its company-owned Skechers retail stores in North America and select European markets through March 28 and is withdrawing its first-quarter 2020 guidance due to the continuing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting uncertainty of the global retail landscape.
The temporary closure of company-owned Skechers stores in North America follows the earlier closures of company-owned and third-party-owned stores in several severely impacted international regions.
“Given the rapidly evolving coronavirus crisis and the importance of social distancing in curbing the spread of the virus, we believe the closure of our stores is the appropriate decision for the safety of our employees, our valued shoppers and the public at large,” said David Weinberg, chief operating officer. “We are monitoring our business and the impact of the virus in all countries and will continue to close stores as we feel needed.”
“When we provided first-quarter guidance during our fourth-quarter earnings call on February 6, 2020, we stated that our estimates could materially change if the situation worsened,” began John Vandemore, chief financial officer of Skechers. “With the outbreak spreading more broadly across the globe, it is apparent that the situation has deteriorated considerably. As a result, we have decided to withdraw our guidance as we are unable to reliably quantify the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our future financial results. We plan to provide more information during our first-quarter earnings call.”
Vandemore continued: “While the full impact and duration of the COVID-19 outbreak are unknown, we believe the strength of our brand and our solid balance sheet will enable us to weather this disruption. In the meantime, we are focused on the health and safety of our employees, partners and customers during this uncertain time.”
Skechers has more than 3,550 Skechers company-owned and third-party-owned retail stores globally.
