Brown brings good news to St. Louis
APRIL 10, 2008 -- A giant shoe sculpture sits in front of the Brown Shoe Co. building on Maryland Avenue in Clayton. ( Huy R. Mach/P-D)
By Gail Appleson
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/11/2008
Brown Shoe Co. has decided that St. Louis is the right fit after all.
After considering a move out of the area, Brown Shoe will stay put, and move Famous Footwear from Madison, Wis., to its 12-acre Clayton campus.
On top of 650 jobs already in Clayton, Brown Shoe will transfer 270 Famous Footwear jobs and expects to create another 230 to 430 positions over the next several years.
Brown Shoe's decision follows Macy's announcement in February that it would close its Midwest regional headquarters downtown.
"We're elated. This is a huge, huge win for St. Louis and the entire region," said Dick Fleming, St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association president and chief executive. "We are keeping a cherished headquarters, and there is also a prospect for significant expansion of that headquarters."
After the company decided to combine its Famous Footwear and Brown Shoe operations, the location was narrowed to Clayton or Madison.
Clayton was picked, in part, because it was less disruptive moving 270 employees to Clayton than 650 employees to Madison, said Diane Sullivan, Brown Shoe's president.
"We have 130 years of history in St. Louis," she said. "Our roots are deep and they mean a lot to us. St. Louis is still the right fit for Brown."
All Madison employees will be offered jobs in Clayton and relocation assistance. The move is expected to start in mid-July and be completed by late October.
The transition is expected to cost Brown Shoe $25 million to $30 million for relocation, severance and other expenses.
Brown, which is both a retailer and wholesaler, can better react to consumers' style choices and more quickly move products to the market by combining Famous Footwear and Brown Shoe into a single headquarters, Sullivan said.
Plans are still being developed as to how Brown's Clayton property will be used, Sullivan said. The company owns two vacant office buildings on the site, along with the headquarters building.
"I am absolutely delighted and excited about the announcement," said Clayton Mayor Linda Goldstein. "We'll be working together to determine what their specific plans are and what their facility needs are."
Famous Footwear is a family shoe store chain with about 1,100 stores and plans to open about 100 more this year. It has been in Madison since 1960, when it opened its first store as Neils Factory Outlet Shoes.
In the mid-1970s, the company renamed the stores Famous Footwear. Brown Shoe bought the company in 1981.
Brown Shoe, which once was based in downtown St. Louis, has been at its Clayton headquarters since 1952.
In addition to Famous Footwear, Brown Shoe operates 300 specialty retail stores in the U.S. and Canada under the Naturalizer, FX LaSalle and Franco Sarto names.
Brown also has an e-commerce subsidiary called Shoes.com. Its wholesale divisions market a range of brands including Naturalizer, Via Spiga, Dr. Scholl's, Etienne Aigner and Carlos by Carlos Santana.
