After years of working to turnaround its business, Genesco isn’t letting its foot off the gas.
On the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, Genesco president, chief executive officer and board chair Mimi Vaughn told analysts that performance had advanced over the last few years through its strategy focused on evolving customer needs and improved cost structure.
Now, the CEO said that in fiscal 2027, Genesco will be evolving its focus into the new “Footwear First” strategy, which centers around four “strategic growth drivers” including creating and curating winning product; elevating distinctive retail and consumer brands; delivering exceptional consumer experiences; and building amazing teams.
“These four drivers form our overall company strategy, but each business has its own important slate of initiatives for the new year that brings this to life,” Vaughn said on the call.
As for how this new vision will translate to the company’s Journeys banner, the CEO said that for back-to-school and holiday, the business be unveiling a new creative concept with headline-making talent. “We will elevate our editorial content, expand our employee ambassador program and increase our social media presence to fuel discovery and our positioning that Journeys is the place for the latest on-trend footwear,” Vaughn said.
Journeys plans to build upon its activations, like the ones it did last year with its Nike launch and the customization tour with Ugg. And lastly, the banner will launch a community platform focused on teen well being, creating energy and positivity to engage with its customer base.
Turning to stores, Journey’s 4.0 format is a “key component” of Genesco’s strategy and “demonstrates the power of an elevated physical shopping experience, delivering stronger new customer acquisition and higher comp lift,” the CEO noted.
In the coming year, Journeys will double the 4.0 store count, adding another 80-plus of these stores to its fleet. About two-thirds of these will be remodels and the balance will be relocations to bigger footprints and some additional new stores or more growth.
Vaughn also announced that it will be expanding the format to its kids’ stores this year.
“This new kids’ concept will be connected to the ‘Big Journeys’ format, but with some intentional differences,” she explained. “Among other features, Kids 4.0 will increase display capacity across all size ranges to see if we’re able to drive higher store volumes.”
As what its new “Footwear First” strategy will mean for Schuh, Vaughn noted that it will unveil a new store format and has a plan in place to refine the banner’s customer proposition, competitive positioning and profitability.
“While the U.K. market has been challenged with heavy promotional activity, matching promotions help sales but hurt profits. We ended the year in a clean inventory position, enabling us to begin removing several calendar promotions and focus on gross margin recovery. This reset will take some time, but our aim is to get back to full price selling of must-have product,” the CEO said.
And Genesco’s branded platforms, Vaughn said the company plans to “capitalize on the favorable trend shift” for Johston & Murphy, with the addition of more tailored styling, more dressing up while maintaining comfort.
“We plan further growth in apparel and accessories, building on success, injecting the assortment with greater freshness,” she said. “In footwear, we’re renewing the assortment with 30 percent more new introductions, including franchise updates and new concepts like the Ripley. We will leverage accelerated development tracks to deliver greater freshness in season as well.”
