Strong start to the holiday season at The Walking Company
Despite continued talk of a downturn in consumer spending, holiday sales at US independent retailer of technical comfort shoes The Walking Company have started well with comparable store sales over the three-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend rising approximately 20% over the same period in 2006, whilst gross margins also improved.
Commenting on the positive sales, chief executive Andrew Feshbach, said, "In addition to our strong Thanksgiving weekend, comparative store sales have increased in the low double digits for October and November and we expect them to continue for the remainder of the year. With margins holding above last year, we appear to be in a good position to achieve improved financial performance for The Walking Company for 2007. Further, we have now expanded The Walking Company to 178 stores, with nine more stores opening in December and three underperforming stores closing by around year end. Looking into 2008, we appear poised to grow rapidly as we continue our store expansion and integrate our new acquisition (Natural Comfort Footwear) which is scheduled to close in early January."
The company stocks brands such as ECCO, Mephisto, Dansko, and Merrell.
