General Financial Releases
Fact Sheet: Brown Shoe Company & Bennett Footwear Group
Brown Shoe + Bennett Footwear GroupCombined Footwear Brands – At a glance
Women’s Fashion Footwear Brands
We're a leading consumer-driven footwear company with both retail and wholesale operations. As a footwear retailer, we operate nearly 1,300 retail shoe stores throughout the U.S. and Canada and 5 internet retail sites. As a wholesaler, we market and supply branded, private label and licensed footwear to department stores, national chains, mass-merchandisers, independent and specialty stores. Our footwear can be found in 23,000 retail doors.
Key Facts
§ $1.94 billion in sales in 2004.
§ We rank as the No. 2 wholesale supplier of women’s fashion shoes to U.S. department stores with a 7.8% share of market.*
§ We rank among the largest outside wholesale suppliers of men’s, women’s and children’s footwear to the mass market.
§ Our sourcing operations deliver 75+ million pairs to the marketplace each year (for wholesale sales).
§ Our Famous Footwear chain is the largest specialty footwear chain selling brand-name shoes for the family. It ranks 4th among all U.S. retailers of footwear.*
Brown Shoe’s Leading Brand Names
Management
Ron Fromm – Chairman and CEO since 1999 (joined 1986)
Diane Sullivan – President since 2004
Dave Schwartz – Chief Admin Officer and President, Int’l division since 2002 (joined 1978)
Andy Rosen – Senior VP and CFO since 1999 (joined 1977)
Joe Wood – President, Famous Footwear division since 2002
Gary Rich – President, Brown Shoe Wholesale since 2000 (joined 1975)
Doug Koch – Senior VP, Human Resources since 2000
Employees: 12,000
Brown Shoe’s History
Brown Shoe Main Offices:
Bennett Footwear Group, LLC
Bennett Footwear is a leading designer, importer, and distributor of branded and private label women's and children's footwear. The company's principal brands (Franco Sarto, Via Spiga, Etienne Aigner, Nickels) are sold through major department stores and specialty retailers. Bennett also develops private label programs for department stores and value-oriented retail customers.
Key Facts
§ $200 million in sales in 2004.
§ Ranks as the No. 3 wholesale supplier of women’s fashion shoes to U.S. department stores with a 5.3% share of the market.*
§ Sourcing operations deliver 20+ million pairs to the marketplace each year (for wholesale sales).
Bennett’s Leading Brand Names
Management
Bruce Ginsberg, President and CEO since 1998 (joined 1986)
Gregg Ribatt, Executive VP and COO since 1998 (joined 1994)
Donna Siciliano, Group President of Franco Sarto and Via Spiga since 1999
Geralyn Lyman, Group President of Etienne Aigner and Nickels since 2001
Hal Parton, Senior VP of Product Development since 1990 (joined 1989)
Michael Smith, CFO since 1999
Employees: 220
Bennett’s History
Bennett’s Main Offices:
* All market share data is from NPD FashionWorld.