Caleres sales lift on Stuart Weitzman acquisition

Caleres on Tuesday reported a 6.6% uptick in sales to $790.1 million for the third quarter, on the back double-digit growth in the American footwear firm’s brand portfolio.

The St. Louis-based company said brand portfolio segment sales surged 18.8%, thanks to the recently acquired Stuart Weitzman brand.
Without the acquisition, which was announced in February, sales increased just 4.6% on last year.

Elsewhere, Famous Footwear sales decreased 2.2%, with comparable sales down 1.2% for the three months ending November 1.

During the quarter, net earnings fell to $2.4 million, or earnings per diluted share of $0.07, compared to net earnings of $41.4 million or earnings per diluted share of $1.19 in the prior-year period.

“Caleres delivered third quarter sales results that were ahead of our internal expectations, highlighted by organic sales growth in our brand portfolio segment, strong lead brands performance, sequential improvement in trends at Famous Footwear, and accelerated e-commerce momentum in both segments of our business,” said Jay Schmidt, president and chief executive officer at Caleres.

“With the recent addition of Stuart Weitzman, our brand portfolio now drives nearly half our sales and more than half our operating earnings. As we expected, we experienced pressure on our earnings from tariffs and near-term acquisition dilution, however, the fundamentals of our business are improving.”

Caleres acquired footwear brand Stuart Weitzman from luxury heavyweight Tapestry in February for just $105 million. The cash deal was completed this summer.