Foot Locker Announce Q4 2023 Results and Strategy Update

Foot Locker have announced their Q4 2023 results alongside new guidance for their Lace Up plan that was revealed last year. The retailer saw the quarter’s sales results beat analyst’s expectations at $2.38 billion in total sales, which is a 2 per cent increase YoY. Despite this, they reported a net loss of $389 million over the quarter, compared with a net income of $19 million in the same period last year.

In terms of guidance for the 2024 fiscal year, the company expects sales to be relatively steady, predicting figures to land between negative one per cent or up one per cent, with comparable sales expected to be between one and three per cent up. Foot Locker also said they expect their gross margin to be between 29.8 per cent and 30 per cent due to lower markdowns.

The company also issued guidance on their Lace Up strategy, which was a plan originally announced in early 2023 to grow the company’s annual revenue to 9.5 billion by 2026. The strategy will see the company focus on introducing new store formats, an improved loyalty program and increasing its brand diversity., Due to lower exit from 2023, the company now expect to hit the above target in 2028.

Work has already begun on these new store formats. In Q4 2023, Foot Locker opened up 29 new stores, remodelled or relocated a further 66, and closed 113 stores. Regarding brand diversity, Nike products made up 60 per cent of sales for Q4 2024, down 3 per cent from the same period last year. In a statement, CEO Mary Dillon said the company was seeing more sales come through from the likes of On and HOKA, as well as adidas and New Balance. This aligns with the company’s goal to have more than 40 per cent of their brand mix to be non-Nike by 2026.