Steve Madden overcome adversities: in fact, the company’s revenues increased by 6.5% in 2019. The US brand went through a weak period in the fourth quarter of the year; on top of that, they had to cope with Payless bankruptcy and had to deal with trade war consequences. In addition, now Steve Madden are also facing a difficult situation with regard to provisions coming from China. Despite that, forecast for 2020 are still optimistic anyway.
Steve Madden overcome adversities
In 2019 fourth quarter, Steve Madden revenues went up to 419.6 million dollars: that is, +0.7%, 2.41% less as formerly estimated by Zacks, according to Nasdaq.com. At the end of the financial year, closed on 31 December 2019, earnings amounted to 1.787 billion US dollars (they therefore increased by 6.5%).
Satisfied and confident (to some extent)
“2019 was an important year to our company – commented Edward Rosenfeld, president and Chief Executive Officer of Steve Madden –, despite a few heavy adversities deriving from Payless Shoe Source bankruptcy and customs duties imposed on products imported from China”. What about the brand’s outlook now? “Due to Coronavirus outbreak, alongside Chinese duties and the suspension of Kate Spade footwear licence, we are rather cautious about short-term business outlook – continued Rosenfeld –. Yet, on the other hand, we are confident that our strong brands, along with our business model, will enable us to augment our profits”. Looking at 2020 financial year, the company expects earnings to increase by 0 to 1%, while profits per share are likely to drop slightly.
About China
While speaking to Forbes, Rosenfeld also answered a few questions about the current situation of China’s supply chain. Although a vast majority of factories are actively running again, Rosenfeld pointed out: “Even currently working factories are not running at full speed: in fact, just one third or two fifths of their employees are back at work. This is a very changeable scenario of course: for the time being, we can see that manufacturing deliveries are on about a three-week delay on average”.
