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Famous Footwear Testing Catalog

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Caleres-owned retailer Famous Footwear, which generated an 11 percent increase in Q3 sales from Q3/19 to nearly $494.7 million, is testing a catalog with consumers for the first time this week. The launch follows similar catalog efforts from other CAL-owned brands — Sam Edelman, Vionic and Allen Edmonds.

During the Back-To-School period, Famous Footwear benefitted from fewer promotional days, a year-over-year inventory decline of only 9 percent from its Top 10 brands, and sales gains from the athletics, casual and sandals categories. The period marked FF’s most profitable B-T-S ever. Online sales rose approximately 44 percent and brick-and-mortar sales were 7 percent higher than Q3/19 despite 55 fewer doors.

As for Caleres’ Brand Portfolio, it generated a 12 percent y-o-y increase in Q3 revenues to $300.5 million. The business did experience an incremental $11.5 million in ocean freight costs during the period. Vionic sales were up 12 percent from Q3/19, fueled by a nearly 90 percent increase in ecommerce revenues. Meanwhile, Allen Edmonds produced Q3 operating income ahead of projections although brand sales have yet to hit pre-pandemic levels. Ryka is delivering strong sales from its casual and sport styles as expansion into the outdoor and trail segments continues. Blowfish Malibu, meanwhile, is now 100 percent-owned by Caleres.

“Going forward, we expect the challenges in the macro supply chain to be part of the operating environment for the foreseeable future,” Diane Sullivan, Caleres Chairman and CEO told analysts last week. “However, we’re highly confident that as supply chain issues moderate and inventory positions improve, we will continue to see tremendous in this business over the long-term.”

At Q3 end, Caleres’ inventory was down 15.7 percent versus Q3/19, including a 24 percent decline at Famous Footwear and 6.7 percent drop within the Brand Portfolio, which had more than $100 million of inventory in transit.

“I think that we’re going to be in this environment of tighter supply for quite some time,” commented Sullivan. “And I think we’re really focused as you could be about making sure we have the inventory against those really important brands and styles…”