Change of direction for Foot Locker
US athletic shoe retailer Foot Locker has reported an 18.7% increase in full-year revenues to $8.9 billion which it attributes to diversifying and expanding its customer base through the purchase of US retailer WSS and Japanese retailer atmos.
A change of strategy includes expanding further into clothing and targeting specific sectors.
Starting this autumn, Foot Locker will have exclusive access to Reebok's basketball footwear to add to its exclusive LaMelo Ball programme with Puma.
The company is moving away from shopping centre locations, and has increased its planned rollout of Global Community & Power Stores to around 300 locations over the next three years. A Power Store is a "community" store about four times the size of those found in a shopping centre, located in an “underserved” area.
The company also plans to implement a cost reduction programme expected to generate savings of year $200 million per year.
Andrew Page, Foot Locker’s chief financial officer, said: "Foot Locker is operating from a strong financial position and we continue to benefit from substantial flexibility in our real estate portfolio, allowing us to pivot our store footprint more easily as we amplify and optimize our omni-channel offerings. With the help of our external partners, we are looking to drive even more efficiency as we ensure alignment of our capital spend, cost structure and organisation design in support of our strategic imperatives."
During the fourth quarter, the company opened 60 stores, acquired 38 atmos stores, remodelled or relocated 115 stores and closed 76 stores. It also closed 120 Footaction stores, of which 45 were converted to stores to other brands.
As of January 29, 2022, the company operated 2,858 stores in 28 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition, 142 franchised stores were operating in the Middle East and Asia.
