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.
