Shoe retailer plans to close 150 stores March 5th, 2010, 7:59 am · 5 Comments · posted by Hang Nguyen, retail reporter Foot Locker Inc. said Thursday that it plans to open about 40 stores and close about 150 underperforming stores this year. In Orange County, the retailer has Foot Locker stores at Westfield MainPlace in Santa Ana, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Westminster Mall, The Village at Orange, Buena Park Mall, Brea Mall and Laguna Hills Mall. It also has Lady Foot Locker stores at South Coast Plaza, Brea Mall and The Shops at Mission Viejo. It’s unknown if the closures will affect these local stores or whether the company will open more stores in O.C.
Below is an excerpt from a Seeking Alpha transcript of the Thursday fourth-quarter earnings conference call with analysts:
Ken Hicks – president and chief executive officer:
We ended the year with 3,500 owned stores reflecting 38 new stores and 179 closed stores for the year. We also remodeled or relocated 188 stores this year … During 2010, we plan to open approximately 40 new stores, and close approximately 150 underperforming stores as we continue to improve the productivity of our store fleet.
Robert McHugh - chief financial officer:
I don’t think there’s been any change at how we decide how we close stores, it really is as we’ve said before a case-by-case basis … for the most part they’re stores that are coming up for renewal or lease expiration and whether we want a renewal. So we look at that particular store, the prospects for that store in that mall, the prospects for that mall, how our other formats are performing in that mall and whether or not we think we would be better off closing it or not. And then of course what kind of rent we would be looking at going forward in terms of the negotiation on a renewal we might be having with the landlord is a factor as well.
