ST. LOUIS, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brown Shoe Company, Inc.
(NYSE: BWS) today announced that in conjunction with its presentation at the
11th Annual ICR XChange Conference to be held at the St. Regis Monarch Beach
Resort in Dana Point, California, on Thursday, January 15, at 12:55 p.m.
Eastern Time, it plans to discuss certain fourth quarter-to-date performance
data. For the nine weeks ended January 3, 2009, same-store sales at the
Company's Famous Footwear division declined 1.5 percent and, as a result of
the highly promotional retail environment, gross margins declined 270 basis
points versus the same period last year. Additionally, during the nine weeks,
unit volume increased by 5.3 percent and inventory decreased by 3.4 percent on
an average store basis versus the comparable period last year.
Ron Fromm, Brown Shoe's Chairman and CEO, stated, "The trade-off between
greater sales and lower margin during the first two months of the quarter was
in-line with our expectations. Importantly, velocity helped clear merchandise
during this period and we feel good about our clean inventory position. As
usual, the bulk of our wholesale orders are planned to ship in the last week
of the quarter and, as always, shipping will be dependent upon whether our
retail partners take receipt in the last week in January or in the first
quarter. We now believe our adjusted earnings per share for the fourth
quarter will fall within the low-end of our previously established guidance
range. Furthermore, we are working to renew and extend our $350 million
revolving credit facility for five more years and have thus far received
commitments of over $350 million. These commitments are subject to typical
and standard conditions, and we expect to finalize and close the amendment
prior to the end of the fiscal year."
Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995:
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements and
expectations regarding the Company's future performance and the future
performance of its brands. Such statements are subject to various risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These
include (i) changing consumer demands which may be influenced by consumers'
disposable income, which in turn can be influenced by general economic
conditions, including the availability of consumer credit; (ii) the
preliminary nature of estimates of the costs and benefits of strategic
business transformation, which are subject to change as the Company makes
decisions and refines these estimates over time; (iii) potential disruption to
the Company's business and operations as it implements its information
technology initiatives as well as the relocation of positions from its
Madison, Wisconsin office to its St. Louis, Missouri headquarters; (iv) the
timing and uncertainty of activities and costs related to redevelopment of the
Company's St. Louis, Missouri headquarters site as well as software
implementation and business transformation; (v) the Company's ability to
utilize its new information technology system to successfully execute its
growth strategy; (vi) intense competition within the footwear industry; (vii)
rapidly changing fashion trends and purchasing patterns; (viii) customer
concentration and increased consolidation in the retail industry; (ix)
political and economic conditions or other threats to continued and
uninterrupted flow of inventory from China and Brazil, where the Company
relies heavily on third-party manufacturing facilities for a significant
amount of its inventory; (x) the Company's ability to attract and retain
licensors and protect its intellectual property; (xi) the Company's ability to
secure leases on favorable terms; (xii) the Company's ability to maintain
relationships with current suppliers; (xiii) the Company's ability to
successfully execute its international growth strategy; (xiv) the
uncertainties of pending litigation; and (xv) the Company's lenders closing on
the amendment and extension on the Company's revolving credit facility. The
Company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission contain detailed
information relating to such factors, including, without limitation, the
information under the caption "Risk Factors" in Item 1A of the Company's
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 2, 2008, which
information is incorporated by reference herein and updated by the Company's
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The Company does not undertake any obligation
or plan to update these forward-looking statements, even though its situation
may change.
About Brown Shoe Company, Inc.
Brown Shoe is a $2.3 billion footwear company with global operations.
Brown Shoe's Retail division operates Famous Footwear, the over 1,100-store
chain that sells brand name shoes for the family, over 300 specialty retail
stores in the U.S., Canada, and China under the Naturalizer, Brown Shoe
Closet, FX LaSalle, Franco Sarto and Via Spiga names, and Shoes.com, the
Company's e-commerce subsidiary. Brown Shoe, through its Wholesale divisions,
owns and markets leading footwear brands including Naturalizer, LifeStride,
Via Spiga, Sam Edelman, Nickels Soft, Connie and Buster Brown; it also markets
licensed brands including Franco Sarto, Dr. Scholl's, Etienne Aigner, Carlos
by Carlos Santana, Fergie branded footwear, and Vera Wang Lavender Label
Collection as well as Barbie, Fisher-Price and Nickelodeon character footwear
for children. Brown Shoe press releases are available on the Company's
website at http://www.brownshoe.com.
SOURCE Brown Shoe Company, Inc.