Brown Shoe

Brown Shoe Co. Inc. (St. Louis) announced a 9.8 percent increase in net sales for its fourth quarter ended Jan. 29, 2005.

Net sales for the year gained 6 percent.

“Famous Footwear enabled us to achieve a solid fourth quarter,” said chairman and ceo Ron Fromm. “Full-year results for fiscal 2004, however, fell short of our expectations primarily due to weaknesses in several key areas of our wholesale business and a poor performance at Naturalizer retail.

“Looking at the full year, Famous Footwear’s momentum built throughout the year, increasing its sales by 4 percent and operating earnings by 16.3 percent, as its new format and improved product offering began to gain favor with consumers. Within our wholesale business, LifeStride, Dr. Scholl’s and our women’s private label businesses all showed improvements, but these gains were not enough to offset poor results at Naturalizer, Bass and our children’s business.”

Fourth quarter sales in the company’s Specialty Retail division, comprised of 359 Naturalizer stores located throughout the U.S. and Canada and 16 FX LaSalle stores in Canada, posted a sales increase of 2.5 percent. Same-store sales for the quarter were down 3.6 percent in the U.S. and up 0.4 percent in Canada.

For the full year, sales for the division were up 1.2 percent, with a 1.1 percent same-store sales decline in the 171 Canadian stores and a 2.2 percent same-store sales decline in the 204 U.S. Naturalizer stores, due to lower-than-expected store productivity in 2004.

“Our Naturalizer retail segment had a very disappointing year,” said Fromm. “As a result, we’ve restructured the business to adopt a pure specialty retail approach. Our go-forward focus will be on improved merchandising, improved product offering, and at the same time we will aggressively manage the expense structure. The division’s new leader, John Mazurk, brings a breadth of experience in retail, including a significant contribution at Famous Footwear, where he ran store operations for the past three years.”