Athletic footwear and apparel retailer, Foot Locker, expects to have opened 40 new stores and closed 200 stores during its fiscal 2009 year (ends 1/31/2010), which is 60 more store closures than the retailer had originally anticipated. This year's net closure of 160 stores follows 144 net closures in 2008 and 157 net closures in 2007.
Foot Locker also plans to reorganize, combining the management of its Foot Locker and Lady Foot Locker divisions, including its Kids Foot Locker and Footaction units -- the company said its current president and CEO of Foot Locker's European operations, Richard Johnson, would become president and CEO of Foot Locker's U.S. division.
Following its 2009 store closure effort, Foot Locker would be left with 3,481 stores in North America, Europe and Australia. This number would be down 486 stores from its peak -- Foot Locker operated 3,967 stores at the end of 2004, which was the year it acquired 350 FootAction stores for $225 million in bankruptcy court.
In the U.S., the average Foot Locker store is 4,100 square feet and located in a regional mall.
This article appears in CoStar's Retail News Roundup: January 10-16, 2010
This week in the Retail Roundup, CoStar reports on
expansions or new concepts at Disney Store and Marco's Pizza;
closings, cutbacks, bankruptcy, default, receivership or foreclosure news at Macy's, Trans World Entertainment, Foot Locker, and Monroe Prestige Group ;
acquisition, merger, loan, sale, or IPO activity at AEW Capital Management, Penn Traffic, Ukrop's, and New England Pantry;
personnel or corporate announcements at Equity One, Marcus & Millichap, Centro Properties Group, Stan Johnson, Grubb & Ellis, and Roberts Commercial;
sustainability and green building news at Regency Centers; and more.