“In light of the challenging setup we faced in the first quarter – including a choppy retail environment, conservative order patterns from our wholesale customers, and difficult comparisons with the prior year – we were pleased to deliver revenue and earnings slightly ahead of expectations. We also further reduced our inventory levels while driving strong gross margin performance despite a promotional retail landscape, demonstrating the benefits and durability of our business model in challenging operating environments”, commented Edward Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Steve Madden.

First Quarter Results

In the first quarter of fiscal 2023, the company's revenue decreased by 17.1%, amounting to 463.8 million US dollars, on a comparable basis to the same period last year.

Its wholesale business added 362.1 million US dollars to the total revenue in this first quarter, down by 19.3% year-over-year, while its direct-consumer revenue totalled 99.6 million US dollars, declining by 8.1% as compared to the same quarter of 2022. Steve Madden reported that it ended the quarter with 235 brick-and-mortar retail stores and five e-commerce websites, as well as 21 company-operated concessions in international markets.

The company's gross profit as a percentage of revenue declined to 42.1% in the first three months of the year from the 40.7% registered in the similar period of the previous year. 

In the three months to the 31^st of March, net income attributable to Steve Madden totalled 36.7 million US dollars, or 0.48 US dollars per diluted share, on a comparable basis to the 74.5 million US dollars, or 0.94 US dollars per diluted share, reported in the same quarter of 2022. Accordingly, the company's adjusted net income was 37.6 million US dollars, or 0.50 US dollars per diluted share, as compared to 73.4 million US dollars, or 0.92 US dollars per diluted share, in the same period of last year.

Full Year Outlook

The US-based company reiterated its guidance for fiscal 2023. So, it still expects its annual revenue to decrease by 6.5% to 8.0% over 2022, diluted earnings per share in the range of 2.39 US dollars to 2.49 US dollars and adjusted earnings per share between 2.40 US dollars to 2.50 US dollars.