Brown Shoe Co. broadens its St. Louis footprint
Since deciding in April to stay put in its Clayton headquarters, Brown Shoe Co. has relocated more than 50 of the 270 employees in its Famous Footwear division in Madison, Wis., to the St. Louis area, according to company spokeswoman Erin Conroy.
To help with the transition, Conroy said, the company worked with outside firms to manage the relocation process and to assist the employees who chose to stay in Madison.
“We knew there would be employees that chose to stay in Madison, and they would be missed,” Conroy said. “But ultimately this was the right decision for our employees, customers, shareholders and the communities in which we live and work.”
To help the new St. Louis employees become acclimated, Conroy said the company established an ambassador network of employees to help with the transition to a new city and office.
Conroy said the handling of the relocation process is something that needs to be unique to each company. “Every company’s needs are different,” she said.
Last spring, the company was considering whether to expand its current headquarters site in Clayton or move elsewhere, looking into prospects in Madison and Dallas. Brown Shoe then announced plans for a $568 million headquarters campus and retail development in Clayton on the 12.5 acres where the company is based at 8300 Maryland Ave. The company has since scaled back the project before putting it on hold indefinitely.