Shoe Carnival celebrates profits; will open 18-19 stores

Evansville, Ind. – Shoe Carnival Inc. saw net income and sales increase during the first quarter of fiscal 2015 as selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses and cost of sales rose at a slower pace than revenues.



Net income totaled $10.4 million, up 8% from $9.2 million the same period a year earlier.



Net sales increased 7% to $252.77 million, from $235.77 million. Same-store sales climbed 3%.



Shoe Carnival expects to open 18 to 19 new stores and close 10 to 14 stores in fiscal 2015. This includes seven new stores and six closed stores in the first quarter, five new stores and three closed stores in the second quarter, six to seven new stores in the third quarter, and one closed store in the fourth quarter.



“While the quarter started off very challenging due to adverse weather, with more than 400 days of store closures, the consumer responded favorably to our family footwear assortment, which resulted in a same-store sales increase across all footwear departments and in each of our geographic regions,” said Cliff Sifford, president and CEO. “In addition, our initiative launched in fiscal 2014 to bring fulfillment of our e-commerce orders in-house has continued to pay dividends as our customers continued to take advantage of the increase in both selection and depth of sizes available to them online.”