Steven Madden Ltd. F1Q08 (Quarter End 03/31/2008) Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-06-03 11:29:22.0

Tags: Steven Madden Ltd.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Scott Krasik - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.

Scott Krasik - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.

Where are you guys with Penney's right now? Are you actually selling them anything?

Edward R. Rosenfeld

We're doing some private label for them but we don't have a brand in Penney's right now. Excuse me, we do have a little bit with Stevies.

Scott Krasik - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.

Okay. Is there a plan there? I know [Rule] didn't work out.

Edward R. Rosenfeld

Yes. I mean, right now we're more focused on building the private label but we've been kicking around some ideas for a brand for them and we've been talking to them pretty regularly about doing something, so hopefully we'll have something to report by the end of the year.

Scott Krasik - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.

And then Candie's obviously is a problem here. Is Kohl's starting to think about or getting frustrated with you guys and looking to do stuff themselves or?

Edward R. Rosenfeld

Well, right now Kohl's is still giving us 100% of the business. We have orders through the end of third and some orders for fourth already with 100% of the Candie's business but we're certainly frustrated with our performance in Candie's. We're disappointed about the way that's gone in the last few quarters so we're making some changes here. In fact we've just this week put a whole new team on Candie's. We've got the team that has had such great success building our private label business for Target is taking over that business. They've done a great job in building a very big and successful Target business and so we're excited about getting them involved with Candie's and hoping to get that moving in the right direction.

Scott Krasik - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.

And then maybe just talk about what people are saying that April sort of picked up a little bit from March, and you know is that what gives you some confidence for the outlook or is it increased you know at-once orders? What's giving you the confidence that you see for the rest of the year?

Edward R. Rosenfeld

Well as you know, what we've been struggling with or were struggling with was a lack of fashion trends in the market and that has actually gotten considerably better. Now there are a number of things that have emerged, flat sandals are doing very well, wedges, gladiators are good, there are a number of categories that we're encouraged by and in particular at Steve Madden we feel very good about our product right now. We think our product is probably better than it's been in about 18 months and we're seeing, as you said, some pick up in April but also in our own retail stores but in the department stores, we're very very pleased with the sell throughs we're getting especially considering the very challenging retail environment right now. So we feel like we're starting to see some momentum. Of course, that being said there are some very significant headwinds with the consumer but we do feel good about our product and how we're positioned right now.

 

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