Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE: BWS) today announced that same-store
sales for the five-week period ending October 4 for its Famous Footwear
division declined 7.3 percent, while same-store sales for the third
quarter through October 4 declined 4.8 percent versus the comparable
period last year. As a result, the Company currently expects its third
quarter 2008 net sales to be in the range of $633 to $638 million, as
compared to $646 million in the year-ago period. This is predicated on
an estimated same-store sales decrease of 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent in
the third quarter at its Famous Footwear division. In addition, the
Company expects third quarter sales in its Wholesale division to
decrease 4.0 to 5.0 percent. The Company now expects third quarter net
earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $0.17 to $0.20, which
includes costs of $0.22 per diluted share related to the relocation of
the Company's Madison, WI headquarters to St. Louis and its information
technology transformation. This compares to $0.61 in the year-ago
period, which included costs of $0.06 per diluted share related to the
Company's Earnings Enhancement Plan. The Company will update full-year
guidance when it releases earnings for the third quarter on November 25,
2008.
The Company will hold a conference call to discuss its third quarter
financial results on Tuesday, November 25, at 8:00 a.m. Central
time/9:00 a.m. Eastern time. The question-and-answer session of the call
will be limited to institutional analysts and investors, but retail
brokers, individual investors, and other interested parties are invited
to attend via a live webcast at http://www.brownshoe.com/investor
or http://www.earnings.com
website (type in the BWS ticker symbol to locate the broadcast). The
Company plans to issue its quarterly results press release before the
market opens that day.
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; (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 the ERP application as well as
the relocation of positions from its Madison, WI office to its St.
Louis, MO headquarters; (iv) the timing and uncertainty of activities
and costs related to redevelopment of the Company's St. Louis, MO
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; and (xiv) the
uncertainties of pending litigation. 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 $2.4 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,
approximately 300 specialty retail stores in the U.S., Canada, and China
under the Naturalizer, Brown Shoe Closet, FX LaSalle, and Franco Sarto
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, Nickels Soft,
Connie and Buster Brown; it also markets licensed brands including
Franco Sarto, Dr. Scholl's, Etienne Aigner, Carlos by Carlos Santana,
Hot Kiss, Fergie branded footwear, and Vera Wang Lavender Label
Collection as well as Barbie, Disney and Nickelodeon character footwear
for children. Brown Shoe press releases are available on the Company's
website at http://www.brownshoe.com.
