• Shoe Zone expects full-year sales to fall by about 4%
  • Retailer is pressing ahead with plans to shutter loss-making stores
  • But Shoe Zone insists the closure programme will not hit full-year profits

 

Shoe Zone expects full-year sales to drop by about 4% as it presses ahead with plans to shutter loss-making stores.

The footwear retailer said it “traded well” in the second half of the year.

However, it expects revenues in the 52 weeks to October 1 to come in at about £160m – down from £166.8m the previous year.

Shoe Zone is closing its unprofitable stores and shuttered 42 shops during the year.

The business opened 17 stores, leaving it with an estate of 510 shops.

Despite the store closure programme, the retailer said in a pre-close trading update that full-year pre-tax profit would remain “broadly in line with expectations”.

Shoe Zone boss Nick Davis said the business has seen “little impact from the EU referendum” and hailed trading during the crucial back to school period.

Davis added that early signs from its big-box store pilot are “very encouraging”.

Shoe Zone has launched three of the larger locations as it trials the new format in a bid to boost sales.

“These stores offer customers a different store experience with a wide range of third-party brands and the feedback so far has been good,” Davis said.

Shoe Zone is expected to reveal more details of the trial when it posts preliminary results on January 11, 2017.

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