8-K

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K
 

CURRENT REPORT
 

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
 

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported) February 22, 2001

 
 
 

BROWN SHOE COMPANY, INC. (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
New York (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)
1-2191 (Commission File Number)	43-0197190 (IRS Employer Identification Number)
8300 Maryland Avenue St. Louis, Missouri (Address of principal executive offices)	63105 (Zip Code)
(314) 854-4000 (Registrant's telephone number, including area code)
N/A (Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)

 
 
 

Page 1 of 2

ITEM 9. REGULATION FD DISCLOSURE

A press release issued by Brown Shoe Company, Inc. on February 22, 2001 is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1, which is incorporated herein by reference.
 
 

SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
 
 
 

	BROWN SHOE COMPANY, INC.
Date:  February 22, 2001	/s/ Michael I. Oberlander Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

 
 

EXHIBIT INDEX

 
 
 

Exhibit #	Description of Exhibit
99.1	Press Release dated February 22, 2001

Page 2 of 2

EX-99.1

 
News
 

NYSE: BWS

For Immediate Release

Contact: Beth Fagan

Vice President, Public Affairs

314-854-4093

 

BROWN SHOE ESTIMATES FULL-YEAR EARNINGS PER SHARE OF $2.04

ANNOUNCES FOOTWEAR LICENSE FOR NEXT STAR WARS FILM

            ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, February 22, 2001 -- Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE:BWS) announced today that it expects diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2000 to be $2.04, up from $1.96 per share the year before. Estimated sales for the 53-week fiscal year ended February 3, 2001 are $1.685 billion, an increase of 6 percent. Brown Shoe will report its audited full-year earnings on February 28^th after market close.

            The company made the announcement prior to a meeting of analysts and investors ("Footwear Industry 2001 Conference" hosted by Wells Fargo Van Kasper) today in Las Vegas, where Brown Shoe Chairman and CEO Ron Fromm and Chief Financial Officer Andy Rosen also will review growth strategies.

            Brown Shoe also announced today that it has reached preliminary agreement with Lucas Films to market children's footwear in connection with the next Star Wars feature film due to be released in spring 2002. Brown Shoe's wholesale division successfully designed and marketed children's Star Wars footwear for the Phantom Menace film in spring 1999.

            Further, Brown Shoe reported that it recently purchased a majority interest in Shoes.com, Inc. and expects to launch two major footwear e-tailing sites in May -- shoes.com and famousfootwear.com. The first will be a mega-brand site, selling brands for all major categories of footwear. Famousfootwear.com will capitalize on the wide name recognition of Famous Footwear and be merchandised like the company's 925 Famous Footwear chain, with "brand names for less." Both sites will leverage the company's existing inventory, infrastructure (merchandising, distribution and information systems) and broad retail base.

            In looking ahead to 2001, Fromm noted, "our wholesale brands are well positioned to capture additional market share and order positions are strong. At our flagship Naturalizer brand, for example, wholesale first quarter orders are up 40 percent versus last year.

            "We will continue our strategy of improving profitability of the Famous Footwear store base by opening new, larger and more productive stores while closing stores that do not meet minimum profitability requirements," Fromm said.

Conference Web-Cast Information:
            Brown Shoe's presentation starts at 12 noon Pacific Time. The conference is being web-cast at the following URL:
http://servicebureau.net/servlet/IPConfServ?ORG_ID=30&CONFERENCE_ID=on24-1

            Brown Shoe's presentation slides will be available for one week on its website: http://www.brownshoe.com/news/news_financial.asp

Fourth Quarter Earnings and Conference Call
            Brown Shoe is scheduled to release its fourth quarter earnings at 4:05 p.m. EST on Wednesday, February 28^th. A conference call to discuss fourth quarter results will be held at 4:30 p.m. EST that same afternoon. While the question-and-answer session of the call will be limited to institutional analysts and investors, retail brokers and individual investors are invited to attend via a live web-cast to be hosted http://www.streetevents.com . At the website, click on the Individual Investor Center to locate the broadcast. To listen to the webcast, your computer must have RealPlayer installed. If you do not have RealPlayer, go to http://www.streetevents.com prior to the call, where you can download RealPlayer for free.

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995: This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These include general economic conditions, competition, consumer apparel and footwear buying trends, and political and economic conditions in Brazil and China, which are significant footwear sourcing countries. The Company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission contain detailed information relating to such factors.

Brown Shoe is a $1.7 billion footwear company with worldwide operations. The company operates the Famous Footwear and Naturalizer chains of footwear retail stores and markets leading brands including Naturalizer, LifeStride, Buster Brown, and licensed brands including Dr. Scholl's, Barbie, Digimon and RugRats character footwear.

Brown Shoe press releases are available by fax through PR Newswire's Company News On-Call fax service at  800-758-5804, extension 109435. Brown Shoe information also is available on the Company's web site at http://www.brownshoe.com. -----END PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE-----