Famous Footwear lifts Brown Shoe in Q4

Increased sales at Famous Footwear and the divestiture of its Shoes.com website helped Brown Shoe increase profits in the fourth quarter.

Brown Shoe Company reported that same store sales increased 4%, while profit was $16.2 million, or 37 cents a share, for the fourth quarter that ended Jan. 31, up from $6.2 million a year earlier. Adjusted earnings totaled $9 million in the quarter, or 20 cents a share, up from $6.2 million a share, or 14 cents a share, a year earlier. Net sales rose 2.6 percent in the quarter to $615.4 million.

“Both of our business segments helped drive fourth quarter results, with Famous Footwear delivering strong same-store-sales growth of 4.0% while Brand Portfolio sales improved 5.4%. Both segments also delivered good improvement in adjusted operating margin for the quarter, with Famous Footwear up 90 basis points and Brand Portfolio adjusted operating margin up 160 basis points,” said Diane Sullivan, CEO, president and chairman of Brown Shoe Company. “This is in addition to record adjusted operating earnings for 2014 and good year-over-year improvement in adjusted operating margin - up 80 basis points to 5.0%.”

For the full year, Brown Shoe's profit rose to $82.8 million, or $1.89 a share, compared with $38.1 million, or 88 cents a share in 2013. Net sales last year rose to $2.6 billion, up from $2.5 billion in 2013. Brown Shoe's guidance for fiscal 2015 earnings per share ranged between $1.78 and $1.88 a share and its consolidated net sales guidance ranged between $2.61 billion and $2.63 billion.

“We’re looking forward to following up a strong 2014 with additional growth in 2015, and we expect to deliver diluted EPS between $1.78 and $1.88 this year,” said Ken Hannah, chief financial officer of Brown Shoe Company. “While we’re confident about our 2015 strategy, we are also cautious about the potential for product delays in the first half of the year, as the west coast port situation is gradually untangled. However, we believe the supply chain changes we implemented last fall should help mitigate most of the impact.”