Brown shoe won big during BTS

Famous footwear may have generated record third quarter sales, but parent company Brown Shoe was unwilling to get too ambitious with holiday expectations given uncertainty it sees around promotional activity and consumer sentiment.

Retailers were saying the same thing heading into the 2013 back to school season, but Famous Footwear, Brown Shoe’s largest division, said same store sales increased 4.9% for the third quarter and 5.6% during the back to school selling season. Total Famous Footwear sales increased only 0.6% however as the company closed 22 stores and opened 11 others.

“Famous Footwear reported record sales in the third quarter, with strength across all geographies, climate zones and genders,” said Brown Shoe president and CEO Diane Sullivan.

Total company sales increased a scant 1% to $702.8 million, but third quarter profits of $27.3 million, or 63 cents a share, were up 12.4% from profits of $24.3 million, or 56 cents a share the prior year.

“To account for our strong performance year-to-date, we are raising our adjusted diluted EPS guidance to a range of $1.36 to $1.40,” said Russ Hammer, Brown Shoe’s CFO. “For the fourth quarter, we expect to operate under the same level of caution as many of our peers, as uncertainty around traffic, promotional activity and consumer sentiment appears to be permeating the overall industry this holiday season.”