Edward Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are pleased to have achieved 27% growth in diluted EPS in the fourth quarter despite a challenging retail environment and unfavorable weather that negatively impacted sales of seasonal products like boots and cold weather accessories. Our retail business continued its strong performance with a 6.1% comparable store sales gain, and we delivered solid gross margin improvement in both our wholesale and retail segments in spite of the headwinds from a heavily promotional retail environment. As we move forward, we are cautious about the overall environment but are pleased with the underlying fundamentals in our business, and we remain confident that the strength of our brands, combined with our proven business model, will enable us to drive meaningful earnings growth over the long term.”

Steve Madden has announced net sales increasing by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, totaling 344.3 million US dollars, compared to 342.6 million US dollars in similar period of 2014. Gross margin expanded 180 basis points to 36.1% as compared to 34.3% in the same period last year. Net income for the period reached 25.7 million US dollars, or 0.43 US dollars per diluted share (21.0 million US dollars, or 0.34 US dollars per diluted share, in the prior year’s fourth quarter).

Net sales for the wholesale business totaled 265.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to 269.9 million US in the fourth quarter of 2014, while retail net sales in the fourth quarter reached 79.3 million US dollars (72.8 million US dollars in similar period in 2014). Same store sales increased by 6.1% for the fourth quarter.

For the full year ended on the 31st of December, net sales increased by 5.3% and totaled 1.4 billion US dollars (rising from 1.3 billion US dollars in the previous year). Net income for the full year reached 112.9 million US dollars (1.85 US dollars per diluted share).

For fiscal year 2016, Steve Madden expects net sales to increase by 2% - 4% over net sales in 2015. Diluted EPS for fiscal year 2016 is expected to be in the range of 1.93 US dollars to 2.03 US dollars.