Brown Shoe to Close Sikeston Distribution Center

The Brown Shoe Co. plans to close its distribution center in Sikeston, MO – impacting about 155 employees, according to company spokesperson Peggy Reilly Tharp. The phased closure will begin in May and end in October.

Brown Shoe, which owns the Famous Footwear and Naturalizer retail chains, announced last November it was closing its Famous Footwear distribution center in Sun Prairie, WI, affecting 144 employees. The Sun Prairie distribution center will be phased out by April.

Reilly Tharp said in a statement the closures are part of the company’s portfolio review to reduce excess capacity in its distribution network.

Reilly Tharp declined to say how many distribution centers the company operates. Brown Shoe Co. reported a loss of $8.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2011.

In its fourth-quarter and full-year 2011 financial statement, Brown president and CEO Diane Sullivan said the company concluded a “challenging year by continuing to execute against our previously announced portfolio realignment efforts.”

Since the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Sullivan said the company has closed its factory in JiangXi, China, and identified an additional 15 Famous Footwear locations to be closed this year.