Important industry footwear customer Journeys is rapidly expanding in Canada, executives said yesterday during an earnings conference call.
Journeys is owned by Genesco, which recently acquired the UK footwear retailer Schuh, also an industry customer.
Executives described Canada as “a meaningful opportunity,” for Journeys.
Journeys opened five stores there during the quarter and now operates 18 stores in the country. The company plans to open seven more there this year.
Overall, Journeys reported a strong first quarter, with same store sales rising 12%, continuing its robust business trends since back to school last year.
In the current quarter, same store sales were up 10% as of last Saturday.
The newly acquired Schuh business is also performing above expectations. As a result, the company plans to accelerate its store openings this year to take advantage of a weak real estate market in the U.K. Schuh will now open 16 stores this year, double the original plan.
Ecommerce sales for Journeys increased 5%, during the quarter. The company is in the midst of adding a “significantly” broader array of merchandise online and is currently building the infrastructure to support that.
Journeys is seeing an increase in mobile engagement with its customers, mostly in marketing rather than sales. Mobile now accounts for 30% of all digital traffic at Journeys.com.
Genesco executives are being cautious about forecasts for the rest of the year citing the economy, the U.K. economic weakness and increased consumer credit.
Executives said consumer credit rose 10.2% in March, the biggest jump in a decade, and they don’t believe that is sustainable.
Genesco expects company-wide same store sales for the remaining three quarter of the year to rise 2% to 3%.
