Foot Locker charts growth course through 2020
On the heels of a very successful fiscal year, Foot Locker executives have announced a string of new and expanded strategic initiatives.
Richard Johnson, president and CEO of Foot Locker Inc. and other members of the company's senior management team announced an updated set of growth initiatives, and a revised strategic framework, intended to further elevate its long-term financial performance for the period 2015 through 2020.
"We have been intently focused on executing our strategies for several years now," said Johnson, "and four consecutive years of record-breaking financial results, including the very strong 2014 results that we announced on March 6th, have reinforced our conviction that these are fundamentally the right strategies on which the high-performing team at Foot Locker, Inc. should remain focused. We have achieved three of our most recent long-range objectives and have moved closer on all the others. As a consequence, our senior management team has recently revised the strategic framework within which to organize our growth initiatives and pursue our business priorities, and we have also raised the bar again on our long-term financial objectives."
The company's updated strategic priorities are to:
Drive performance in the core business with compelling customer engagement
Expand our leading position in the kids' business
Aggressively pursue European expansion opportunities
Build apparel penetration and profitability
Build a more powerful digital business with customer-focused channel connectivity
Deliver exceptional growth in our women's business
Build on our industry-leading team by embracing the power of our people
The company also significantly raised its new long-range financial objectives:
Sales of $10 billion
Sales per gross square foot of $600
EBIT margin of 12.5%
Net income margin of 8.5%
Return on invested capital of 17%
Inventory turnover of 3+ times
"I want to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to all of our associates around the globe for their exceptional dedication and excellent execution of our strategies, in the process driving our financial results to new heights over the last several years," added Johnson. "Setting new targets is easy. Reaching those new targets is not. Achieving even stronger levels of operational and financial performance will only be possible through the very diligent work of our outstanding team of associates, and the new framework allows us to focus even more clearly on the key initiatives that we believe will enable us to achieve our vision – to be the leading global retailer of athletically inspired shoes and apparel."
For fiscal 2014, total sales at Foot Locker increased 9.9% in 2014 to $7,151 million, the highest level of sales ever recorded by the company, compared with sales of $6,505 million last year. Same store sales increased 8% in 2014.
Foot Locker Inc. is a specialty athletic retailer that, as of Jan. 31, operated 3,423 stores in 23 countries in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.