Despite Woolworth Corp. CEO Roger Farah making Foot
Locker the "linchpin of his turnaround plan," same-store
sales at Foot Locker "have been falling for seven months, as
fickle teenagers spurn costly Nikes for other footgear and
larger superstores push around the industry pioneer,"
according to I. Jeanne Dugan of BUSINESS WEEK. Woolworth's
athletic division -- which includes Foot Locker, Lady Foot
Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs and Eastbay catalog -- "has
grown" into a $3.6B business, and its '96 profits of $461M
"exceeded those of the entire corporation." But Dugan
writes that Foot Locker "can no longer support Woolworth,"
because it is "slipping in a slowing market." Foot Locker
is "getting hit hardest" in the slowing athletic-shoe
industry and the most "alarming sign" was its 11.2% slide in
same-store sales in August (BUSINESS WEEK, 10/27 issue).
GOING BIG: Dugan writes that Foot Locker is also
"rapidly losing ground to newcomers that have stores as much
as 10 times its size." To combat that, Farah plans to
create "instant superstores at many" of the company's 1,550
outlets by "literally pushing back the stores' stockroom
walls." By late next year, Farah expects to convert 100
stores into superstores and "figures" that those conversions
will boost sales $300-400M (BUSINESS WEEK, 10/27 issue).
