Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Jeff Van Sinderen of B. Riley.
Jeffery Van Sinderen – B. Riley & Company
I was just wondering if you could offer any additional comments on the business sales trends in December, what the promotion cadence was how the month tracked week-by-week?
Kevin S. Wampler
It was an unusual December. The cadence of sales during the month really seemed to vary. We started off the Thanksgiving weekend there was a lot of hype there was a lot of excitement there was a lot of promotion going on. We saw really good traffic in the malls and we had what we thought were pretty good sales. Business slowed down and then as we got closer to Christmas which seems to be the trend that’s magnifying each and every year now that the closer we get to Christmas the more shopping and the more excitement that there is. I think that pretty much held true and after holiday again, the trend seems to be like it’s been the last few years more excitement more shopping.
Again, I’ve talked about down mid single digits in The Finish Line but we’re really pretty pleased with the performance especially with regard to product margins. We had better product margins. I don’t want to quantify any more than that because certainly the periods not over and the quarter’s not over but, when I say better I don’t mean slightly better I mean really significantly better product margins.
Jeffery Van Sinderen – B. Riley & Company
With your comps tracking down in the mid single digits I’m wondering how you see that shifting or if and when you see that shifting back to trending flattish or maybe even positive at some point? I know it’s hard, you never know but it seems that on the last couple of calls you were very optimistic that your business could improve and I’m just wondering how you see that or what you see driving that to happen at this point?
Alan H. Cohen
Well, really our footwear business is again, is really not that bad. Even in Q3 footwear was down about a point and a half I think. So, it’s the soft goods end of our business which is what we’re really struggling with and I think that’s going to continue to be the problem for us. We feel really very good about our product mix in footwear on a go forward basis. We are building inventory in key products things like brand Jordan, Shox and also we’re doing a very good job of bring in new brands and new products especially within the sports style arena that are much, much more relevant on a go forward basis this year than what we were able to do last year. We really feel that our merchants are getting ahead of the trends now rather than being so far behind the trends especially again with regards to sports style products. So, going into our stores I think even today you’ll see a lot of brands, you’ll see a lot of exciting products. You’ll see a tremendous amount of products dedicated to performance especially Tech Running which is really turning into a very positive program for us building a lot of momentum with a lot of new and different brands as well as the offerings for Nike Shock and also from Nick Bowerman and other performance products.
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