SHOE CARNIVAL INC
For the period ended Feb 3, 2024. Filed Mar 22, 2024.
View on SEC.govAbout this filing
A company's yearly report to the SEC, with audited financial statements. It is the fullest account a company gives of its business, its finances and the risks it sees.
FY2024 · Filed Mar 22, 2024
Extracted filing text, with the paragraph anchors used by the comparison.
See the whole filing, with its images and exhibitsContents
Item 1. Business
Our Company
Shoe Carnival, Inc. is one of the nation’s largest omnichannel sellers of family footwear. We operate a retail focused business model that aims to deliver the leading footwear shopping experience with the national name brands desired by our customers. Our "bricks" first, omnichannel approach provides customers easy access to our wide assortment of branded footwear for athletics, daily activities and special events via their choice of delivery channel. We have a proven track record selling branded footwear, such as Nike, Skechers, Crocs, adidas, Puma, HEYDUDE, Converse and Vans, and generating profits without incurring debt. We have been in business for 45 years and have been a public company subject to SEC reporting requirements since 1993. Since 1993, we have earned a profit in every year except 1995.
As part of our long-term growth strategy, we have invested significantly in customer relationship management (“CRM”) capabilities, e-commerce infrastructure, modernization of our store fleet, and acquisitions as key drivers of profitable growth. Since Fiscal 2019, our Diluted Net Income per Share has increased 84%, Gross Profit margin expanded 570 basis points, and Net Sales grew 13%.
As of our Fiscal 2023 year end, we operated 400 stores across 35 states and Puerto Rico under our Shoe Carnival and Shoe Station banners. Including e-commerce sales in close proximity to a physical store, our comparable physical stores generated an average of $2.9 million in Net Sales in Fiscal 2023 and approximately $255 in Net Sales per square foot. We believe there is potential within our existing markets to grow our store count to over 500 stores in 2028 through both organic and acquired store growth. We believe this opportunity to increase our scale, together with stable operating income margins, will continue to drive shareholder value and our future earnings potential.
Subsequent to year end, on February 13, 2024, we furthered our acquisition strategy by acquiring all of the stock of Rogan Shoes, Incorporated, a Wisconsin corporation ("Rogan's"). Rogan’s adds 28 more physical stores and an additional distribution center to our portfolio. Rogan's will be integrated into our Shoe Station banner and our current plan is to brand and operate these stores using both the Rogan’s and Shoe Station tradenames. More information about this subsequent event can be found in Note 16 - “Subsequent Events” in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in PART II, ITEM 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
In Fiscal 2023, our Net Sales were $1.18 billion and our ambition is to achieve omnichannel sales in excess of $2 billion in 2028.
Our fiscal year is a 52/53 week year ending on the Saturday closest to January 31. Unless otherwise stated, references to years 2023, 2022 and 2021 relate to the fiscal years ended February 3, 2024 ("Fiscal 2023"), January 28, 2023 ("Fiscal 2022") and January 29, 2022 ("Fiscal 2021"), respectively. Fiscal 2019 is the fiscal year ended February 1, 2020. Fiscal 2020 is the fiscal year ended January 30, 2021. Fiscal 2023 consisted of 53 weeks while all other years presented and discussed consisted of 52 weeks.
References to our store banners “Shoe Carnival” and “Shoe Station” are to the individual banners, not the entire company. References to “we,” “us,” “our” and the “Company” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K refer to Shoe Carnival, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Shoe Carnival, Inc. is an Indiana corporation that was initially formed in Delaware in 1993 and reincorporated in Indiana in 1996.
References to the “SEC” refer to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
See PART II, ITEM 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information regarding the trends impacting our Fiscal 2023 operating results.
Our Banners
Shoe Carnival
Our Shoe Carnival retail concept has developed over our 45-year history and is differentiated from competitors by our distinctive, fun and promotional marketing efforts. Shoe Carnival stores combine competitive pricing with a high-energy in-store environment that encourages customer participation. Unique features of our store experience include upbeat music, opportunities for customers to spin our spin-n-win wheel and a mic-person who runs in-store specials. These specials include contests, games and hot deals of the moment to encourage customers to take immediate advantage of our special, in-store pricing. As of our Fiscal 2023 year end, we operated 372 Shoe Carnival stores located across 35 states and Puerto Rico and offered online shopping at www.shoecarnival.com.
Shoe Station
On December 3, 2021, we acquired the physical stores and substantially all of the other assets and liabilities of privately-held, family-owned Shoe Station, Inc. ("Shoe Station"). The Shoe Station assets were acquired for approximately $70.4 million, funded with cash on hand. This acquisition was the first in our history. As of our Fiscal 2023 year end, we operated 28 stores across six states in the Southeast under the Shoe Station banner, inclusive of the 21 stores acquired and seven additional stores opened since the acquisition. The Shoe Station e-commerce website, www.shoestation.com, went live on our e-commerce platform in early February 2023. The addition of this banner has created a complementary retail platform for us to serve a broader base of family footwear customers in both urban and suburban demographics.
Net Sales attributed to the Shoe Station banner were $104.5 million in Fiscal 2023, $99.9 million in Fiscal 2022 and $16.6 million from the acquisition date through January 29, 2022 in Fiscal 2021. The Rogan's acquisition will be included as part of the Shoe Station banner, and with other planned new store growth, we expect our Net Sales from this banner to substantially grow in Fiscal 2024. More information on the Shoe Station acquisition can be found in Note 3 - "Acquisition of Shoe Station" in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in PART II, ITEM 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Our Diversified Sales Mix
We sell broadly across the family footwear channel, with balanced distribution among type of customer (men, women and children), product (athletics and non-athletics) and age (senior citizens to infants) and with no singular reliance on any particular segment. The products we offer are a broad mix of footwear for sport, daily activities and special events. The table below sets forth our percentage of sales by product category over the last five fiscal years.
| Fiscal Years | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Athletics: | |||||
| Women's | 26% | 28% | 24% | 22% | 25% |
| Men's | 16 | 17 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Children's | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Total | 49 | 52 | 44 | 41 | 44 |
| Athletics: | |||||
| Women's | 15 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 17 |
| Men's | 17 | 16 | 20 | 22 | 20 |
| Children's | 13 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 14 |
| Total | 45 | 42 | 50 | 53 | 51 |
| Accessories | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Other | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Our Strategic Growth Initiatives
Store Growth
Increasing market penetration by adding new stores is a key component of our growth strategy. We believe our current store footprint provides for near-term fill-in opportunities within existing markets as well as longer-term growth to new markets within the United States. In Fiscal 2023, we opened five new stores (one Shoe Carnival store and four Shoe Station stores) within existing markets. We aim to operate approximately 30 new stores in Fiscal 2024, inclusive of integrating the 28 Rogan's stores acquired on February 13, 2024. We are targeting operating at least 500 stores in 2028. This increased scale will be accomplished through a combination of both organic and acquired store growth with particular focus on the Shoe Station banner.
Store Modernization
Another key component to growing our Net Sales is the modernization of our Shoe Carnival store fleet. In Fiscal 2023 and Fiscal 2022 our capital expenditures were $56.3 million and $77.3 million, respectively, with a primary focus on store modernization and new stores. Our new store design is viewed as a differentiator by certain strategic vendor partners and has provided us an opportunity to increase access to branded merchandise in the near term. As of Fiscal 2023 year end, approximately 60% of our Shoe Carnival store modernization was complete. We expect to continue to modernize additional Shoe Carnival stores in Fiscal 2024. Total capital expenditures are expected to be in a range of $25 million to $35 million in Fiscal 2024 and lower than prior years as the store modernization program nears completion.
E-commerce Growth
Our e-commerce platform is an extension of our physical stores and is designed to improve our customer’s shopping experience. We are committed to providing a personalized, seamless customer experience across all channels, and we believe that our ongoing omnichannel initiatives are aligned with changing consumer behavior.
We delivered a new online experience to our customers in Fiscal 2023. We launched our www.shoestation.com website in February 2023 and relaunched our www.shoecarnival.com website in late October 2023. This marked the first major redesign of our Shoe Carnival website since 2016. We have completed the technology migration for both banners to a single platform hosted by a leading provider. We anticipate these enhancements will increase user engagement and conversion, enhance the ease of navigation and improve overall functionality compared to the legacy website design.
We continue to expect our e-commerce platform to be a significant sales channel for us. Our goal is for our e-commerce sales channel to provide between 10% and 15% of enterprise-wide merchandise sales, versus a pre-pandemic 6% in Fiscal 2019. E-commerce sales represented approximately 10% of our merchandise sales in Fiscal 2023 and Fiscal 2022, and 12% in Fiscal 2021.
Customer Relationship Management ("CRM")
Our CRM program continues to provide valuable customer insights to our business, resulting in more efficient and effective marketing outreach. Our CRM program provides our marketing, merchandising, analytics and real estate teams with a better and more complete view of our customer’s shopping behaviors and forms the foundation of our digital marketing efforts and our Shoe Perks loyalty program (“Shoe Perks”). Our view into customer data allows us to more effectively communicate with our customers on a segmented basis through all owned and paid media channels and tailor the merchandise mix at an individual store level. Through transaction data, we gain useful insights into our customers’ shopping habits, including where, when and how they shop our stores and navigate our online presence. Additionally, our CRM program allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the brands and categories that our high-value customers consistently purchase so that we can continue to meet customer needs and demand at a geographic and store level.
Our CRM program allows us to drive customer retention by delivering to each customer more individualized shopping opportunities and experiences and aids in gaining a better understanding of our existing customer base as well as identifying new customers. We expect segmentation and activation of our high-value customers through data analysis and targeting the broader market of ‘look-a-like’ customers to continue to play a key role in our growth.
Once a customer enrolls in Shoe Perks and provides a means for digital communication, the customer will begin receiving personalized communications from us. These communications afford us additional opportunities to highlight our broad product assortment and promotional programs. Shoe Perks provides customers with a heightened shopping experience, which includes exclusive offers and rewards that are earned by making purchases either in-store or online and through participating in other point earning opportunities that facilitate engagement with our brand and the national name brands we offer.
We are focused on expanding our Shoe Perks enrollment. In Fiscal 2023, our Shoe Perks membership, including Shoe Station customers, grew to 34.5 million members, representing an increase in new customers of 7% compared to Fiscal 2022 year end.
In Fiscal 2023, purchases from Shoe Perks members were approximately 71% of our comparable Net Sales through our Shoe Carnival bannered stores. We believe our Shoe Perks program provides a tremendous opportunity to communicate, build relationships and engage with our most loyal shoppers and increase our customer touch points, which we believe will result in long-term sales gains. Our most loyal customers, those who qualify for our “Gold” tier, receive additional rewards and incentives. The average transaction value for our Gold tier customers was approximately 43% higher than non-Gold tier Shoe Perks members in Fiscal 2023.
Strong and Diversified Vendor Partnerships
We offer merchandise from a broad range of over 270 vendor partners. In Fiscal 2023, Nike, Inc. (“Nike”), Skechers U.S.A., Inc. (“Skechers”) and Crocs, Inc. ("Crocs") collectively accounted for approximately 45% of our Net Sales in Fiscal 2023. Nike and Skechers collectively accounted for approximately 27% in Fiscal 2022 and 39% in Fiscal 2021. Nike accounted for approximately 20% of our Net Sales in Fiscal 2023, 14% in Fiscal 2022 and 28% in Fiscal 2021; Skechers accounted for approximately 14% of our Net Sales in Fiscal 2023, 13% in Fiscal 2022 and 11% in Fiscal 2021; and Crocs accounted for approximately 11% of our Net Sales in Fiscal 2023.
We continually work to strengthen our brand offerings and our relationships with our key vendors. While we have no long-term contracts in place with any of our vendors, we anticipate that Nike, Skechers and Crocs will continue to be high-volume vendors for us in Fiscal 2024.
Our Competitive Strengths
We believe our operational and financial success is due to a number of key competitive strengths that make our Shoe Carnival and Shoe Station banners destinations of choice for our family channel footwear consumer.
Digital Media to Build Brand Awareness
Our goal is to communicate a consistent brand image for both of our banners across all aspects of our operations and throughout our marketing strategies. We highlight our banners and the name brands we carry, including specific styles of product, using lifestyle and product imagery to showcase merchandise brands. The use of digital media comprises the substantial portion of our marketing investment, particularly as we leverage data that comes directly from our customers as part of our CRM solution, allowing us to directly communicate with our core customers. Television, radio, print media (including inserts, direct mail and newspaper advertising) and outdoor advertising accounted for the balance of our total advertising investment.
Centralized Distribution Process
Our Evansville distribution center is equipped with mechanized processing and product movement equipment. The facility utilizes cross docking/store replenishment and redistribution methods to fill store product requirements. These methods may include count verification, price and bar code labeling of each unit (when not performed by the manufacturer), redistribution of an order into size assortments (when not performed by the manufacturer) and allocation of shipments to individual stores. Throughout packing, allocating, storing and shipping, our distribution process is essentially paperless. Merchandise is typically shipped to each store location once per week. For stores within the continental United States, a dedicated carrier, with occasional use of common carriers, handles the majority of shipments. We leverage these investments with third party managed software tailored to our specific needs to track merchandise during the transportation and distribution process. During Fiscal 2023, 98% of merchandise was received into our Evansville distribution center, with a much smaller percentage of merchandise being either directly drop shipped to customers or sent directly to a store location. Additional information about our Evansville distribution center can be found in PART I, ITEM 2, "Properties" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Disciplined Approach to Capital Management
We remain focused on funding our normal operations without debt. We ended Fiscal 2023 with no debt and $111.2 million of Cash and Cash Equivalents and Marketable Securities. Over the last five fiscal years, we have had no debt outstanding and Cash, Cash Equivalents and Marketable Securities of $61 million to $132 million at the end of each fiscal year. We believe this approach increases our ability to make impactful long-term decisions and enhances our stakeholder relationships.
Leased Stores
Our stores are found in high traffic shopping areas and are generally located in open-air shopping centers. On average, our Shoe Carnival physical stores are approximately 10,900 square feet and carry inventory of approximately 32,500 pairs of shoes per location. On average, our Shoe Station physical stores are approximately 17,800 square feet and carry an average inventory of 43,100 pairs of shoes per location. More information about our store locations and other properties can be found in PART I, ITEM 2, "Properties" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. All stores are currently leased and more information on our leases can be found in Note 10 - "Leases" in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in PART II, ITEM 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Distinctive In-Store Shopping Experience
Our in-store merchandise is displayed directly on the selling floor in an open stock format, allowing customers to serve themselves, if they choose. Our trained staff is dedicated to customer service and assists and educates customers with the features and location of merchandise, as well as finding sizes, styles and colors. Our new store design incorporates the use of digital screens that are centrally controlled and are more adaptable than printed visual in-store advertising. These digital screens further enhance the in-store shopping experience and provide another opportunity for our vendors to compete for in-store advertising. We believe our distinctive shopping experience gives us important competitive advantages, including the building of a loyal, repeat customer base, the creation of word-of-mouth advertising, and enhanced sell-through of in-season goods.
Broad Merchandise Assortment
Our product assortment is comprised primarily of on-trend branded footwear for the entire family and includes dress and casual shoes, sandals, boots and a wide assortment of athletic shoes. Our physical stores carry shoes in two general categories – athletics and non-athletics with subcategories for men's, women's and children's shoes, as well as a broad range of accessories. Our e-commerce platform offers customers a large assortment of products in all categories of footwear with an increased depth of sizes and colors that may not be available in all stores. Although the core merchandise assortment tends to be similar for each store, there are differences between our store banners, and to some extent, there is further differentiation by store under each banner, reflecting each store’s unique demographics and customer preferences. Our knowledge of these customer preferences, combined with our vendor relationships and distribution process, allows us to react to emerging trends or special events.
Information Technology
Our proprietary inventory management and advanced point-of-sale (“POS”) systems provide us with the timely information necessary to monitor and control all phases of operations. The POS provides, in addition to other features, full price management, promotion tracking capabilities (in support of the spontaneous nature of the in-store price promotions), real-time sales and cost of sales by product category at the store level and customer tracking. Using the POS, both store personnel and centralized merchandising staff are able to monitor sales, cost of sales and the success of product promotions in real-time.
Our systems provide up-to-date sales and inventory information and our data warehouse enables our merchandising and store operations staff to analyze sales, margin and inventory levels by store. Using this information, our merchandise managers meet regularly with vendors to compare product sales and margins and return on inventory investment against previously stated objectives. We believe timely access to key business data has enabled us to drive our comparable store sales, manage our markdown activity and improve inventory turnover.
Efficient E-commerce Order Management and Fulfillment (Ship-From-Store and Vendor Drop Ship Program)
We have implemented a third party hosted order management system designed to our specific needs, which has enabled us to meet the complex demands of omnichannel fulfillment and has positioned us to further scale our e-commerce capabilities as we grow.
Our Ship-From-Store program is a core element of our omnichannel strategy. Online orders are primarily fulfilled using physical stores. By fulfilling e-commerce orders principally from our store level inventory and staff, we are able to minimize out-of-stocks, offer our customers an expanded online assortment and leverage store level inventory and overhead. E-commerce orders can also be fulfilled from our distribution center in Evansville, Indiana and this distribution center is used in times of peak demand.
We also maintain a vendor drop-ship program with select business partners. This program offers our customers an expanded online assortment of styles and colors that we do not carry in store. While our customers benefit from expanded item assortment, the functionality of this program is seamless, and our customers’ online experience is not impacted by the vendor drop-ship fulfillment option. As a benefit of this program, we do not need to make a capital investment in the expanded inventory assortment, which is carried and fulfilled by our business partners participating in this program.
Competitive Pricing For Our Customers
Our customer is primarily a value-conscious consumer seeking name brand footwear across all ages, with our Shoe Station banner targeting a higher price point and more suburban customer. We believe that by offering a wide selection of popular styles of primarily name brand merchandise at competitive prices, we generate broad customer appeal. Additionally, the time-conscious customer appreciates the convenience of one-stop shopping for the entire family, whether this occurs at our store locations or through our other omnichannel choices.
Competition
The retail footwear business is highly competitive. We believe the principal competitive factors in our industry are merchandise selection, price, fashion, quality, location, shopping environment and service. We compete with department stores, shoe stores, sporting goods stores, e-commerce retailers and mass merchandisers. We compete with most department stores and traditional shoe stores by offering competitive prices. We compete with off-price retailers, mass merchandisers and discount stores by offering a wider and deeper selection of merchandise. Many of our competitors are significantly larger than we are in terms of Net Sales, and many can access the capital markets with greater speed and efficiency than we can.
Culture and Human Capital Management
We have intentionally built an employee-centric, customer-focused organization designed to compete at the highest levels in the retail industry. Our commitment to, and investment in, a strong performance culture is paramount to our long-term sustainability and success.
Workforce Diversity
We serve a diverse customer base and seek diversity in and among our workforce in all areas, from our stores to our Evansville distribution center and our corporate offices. We are firmly committed to providing equal opportunities in all aspects of employment and believe that all individuals should be treated with respect and dignity. Diversity is an important element in our ongoing annual mandatory training for all employees and managers. We do not tolerate harassment or unlawful discrimination of any kind.
We have clear policies encouraging strong relationships and protecting open lines of communication with management at every level. This, coupled with our non-retaliation policy, encourages employees to communicate issues and seek immediate redress of those issues if they should arise.
We understand the value of diversity at all levels, whether of gender, race, ethnicity, background or experience. As of our Fiscal 2023 year end, our workforce identified as 64% female and 36% male. Our broad-based leadership team, including those who manage and lead our stores and those who lead our Company, identified as 62% female and 38% male. With respect to ethnicity, our leadership team identified as 60% Caucasian and 40% non-Caucasian. The diversity of our leadership team trends with the diversity of our customer base, which based on recent data from our Shoe Perks customer loyalty program, approximates 70% Caucasian and 30% non-Caucasian and is more female than male.
In our corporate leadership roles (senior director-level employees through our named executive officers), the percentage identifying as female has significantly increased over the last five years from 5% to 24% with several departments, such as human resources, buying and merchandising, technology and accounting, being led by those that identify as female.
We are also focused on the diversity of our Board. Currently, two of four of our non-employee Board members and two of seven of our total Board identify as female. We are continuing to refresh our Board and assess long-term succession as well as the diversity of the Board’s collective skill set. Over the last four years, three board members have transitioned, creating opportunity for new directors who have enhanced our diversity.
Retention
We believe our employee-centric culture not only supports higher levels of execution and performance, but also has led to increased retention of key talent.
Our store-level training programs provide the foundation for long-term careers and our ability to promote from within. We support the first-time jobs for many of our associates where they gain workforce experiences that may grow into long-term careers.
Currently, all of the general managers who operate our Shoe Carnival bannered stores and 94% of our district managers who oversee those general managers were trained, developed and promoted from within. As of our Fiscal 2023 year end, of our 32 district managers across both banners, 66% have been employed by us for more than 20 years. The average tenure of the general managers who operate our Shoe Carnival and Shoe Station bannered stores was 14 years as of Fiscal 2023 year end.
Individuals who comprise our leadership team, which includes our named executive officers, vice presidents and senior director-level employees, have been employed by Shoe Carnival or Shoe Station for an average of 18 years.
Annually we survey a cross-section of employees on matters involving policy and procedure, organizational structure, operating style, commitment to hiring a competent workforce and commitment to integrity and ethical values. Since 2004, responses to this survey have had an average score of 4.2 to 4.3, with 5 being “strongly agree.”
Employee Benefits
Among the many ways we seek to serve our employees, we offer a complete range of benefits. These include competitive wages and incentives; an employee stock purchase plan with a discount off the fair value of our common stock; employer-subsidized medical plans with dental and vision benefits; qualified and unqualified defined contribution plans with employer matching contributions; and merchandise discounts, among other benefits.
Training and Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
We are dedicated to strengthening our culture and execution through ongoing training for all associates. We are uniquely focused on training within our store-level, customer-facing operations. Employees must obtain necessary certifications in order to be responsible for the keys to a store and eventually to become a general manager. Our broad-based training program also engages and educates our employees on the following key topics:
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (“Code of Ethics”);
Insider trading;
Non-discrimination and anti-harassment;
Cybersecurity awareness and responsibility; and
Supply chain security.
More information regarding our approach to conducting business responsibly, including our guidelines on discrimination and harassment, can be found in our Code of Ethics. Our Code of Ethics applies to all of our Board members, officers and employees, including our principal executive officer and our principal financial and accounting officer.
Our Code of Ethics is posted on our website at investors.shoecarnival.com/governance/governance-documents. We intend to disclose any amendments to the Code of Ethics by posting such amendments on our website. In addition, any waivers of the Code of Ethics for our Board members or executive officers will be disclosed in a Current Report on Form 8-K.
Safety of our Employees and Security of our Data
We strive to provide our associates with a safe and healthy work environment. We measure OSHA recordable incidents to gauge the success of our safety protocol. During calendar year 2023, we recorded 62 non COVID-related OSHA recordable incidents, an approximate 2% reduction in incidents compared to five years ago. Excluding the Shoe Station operations, which continue to be integrated into our safety culture, the decrease compared to five years ago was 5%.
Our strategies to address the ever-expanding complexities of protecting customer and employee data and executing our business strategies in an increasingly digital world continue to advance. Our technology department monitors and regularly tests compliance with our protocols, provides regular updates to employees and management and conducts annual training. More information on our cybersecurity processes can be found in PART I, ITEM 1C, "Cybersecurity" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Number of Employees
As of our Fiscal 2023 year end, we had approximately 5,300 employees, of which approximately 3,000 were employed on a part-time basis. The Rogan's acquisition added approximately 600 additional employees as of February 13, 2024. The number of employees fluctuates during the year primarily due to seasonality. None of our employees are represented by a labor union.
Seasonality
For a discussion of the impact of seasonality on our operating results and our business, see PART II, ITEM 7, “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Impact of Store Count and Seasonality on Quarterly Results.”
Trademarks
As of our Fiscal 2023 year end, we own the following federally registered trademarks and service marks: Shoe Carnival®and associated trade dress and related logos, Y-NOT?®, UNR8ED®, Solanz®, Shoe Perks®, SC Work Wear®, A Surprise In Store®, Shoes 2U®, Laces for Learning®, Princess Lacey’s Laces®, Shoe Station®, Shoe Station Super Store® and Shoe Station Select®. We believe these marks are valuable and, accordingly, we intend to maintain the marks and the related registrations. We are not aware of any pending claims of infringement or other challenges to our right to use these marks.
Environmental
We seek to minimize our impact on the environment and reduce our carbon footprint by actively implementing environmentally-friendly processes throughout our business, including energy efficiency initiatives, waste minimization and the use of recycled materials within our supply chain. Our most significant areas of focus are fuel and packaging material used to deliver merchandise to our Evansville distribution center and stores; the HVAC and lighting systems in our stores, Evansville distribution center and corporate office; and recycling methods.
Compliance with current federal, state and local provisions regulating the discharge of materials into the environment or otherwise relating to the protection of the environment has not had a material effect upon our capital expenditures, earnings or competitive position. We anticipate no material capital expenditures for environmental control facilities for Fiscal 2024 or for the near future.
Available Information
We make available free of charge through the investor relations portion of our website at www.shoecarnival.com our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. We have included our website address throughout this filing as textual references only. The information contained on, or accessible through, our website is not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
This Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC, including the financial statements and schedules thereto, without the accompanying exhibits, is available without charge to shareholders, investment professionals and securities analysts upon written request. Requests should be directed to Investor Relations at our corporate address. A list of exhibits is included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and exhibits are available from us upon payment to us of the cost of furnishing them.
Information about our Executive Officers
The following table sets forth certain information with respect to our executive officers as of the date of filing this Annual Report on Form 10-K, March 22, 2024:
| Name | Age | Position |
|---|---|---|
| J. Wayne Weaver | 89 | Chairman of the Board and Director |
| Clifton E. Sifford | 70 | Vice Chairman of the Board and Director |
| Mark J. Worden | 50 | President and Chief Executive Officer and Director |
| Carl N. Scibetta | 65 | Senior Executive Vice President - Chief Merchandising Officer |
| Marc A. Chilton | 54 | Executive Vice President - Chief Operating Officer |
| Patrick C. Edwards | 52 | Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary |
Mr. Weaver has served as Chairman of the Board since March 1988. From 1978 until February 1993, Mr. Weaver had served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Nine West Group Inc., a designer, developer and marketer of women’s footwear. He has over 50 years of experience in the footwear industry. Mr. Weaver is a former Director of Nine West Group Inc. Mr. Weaver served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jacksonville Jaguars, LTD, a professional football franchise, until January 2012.
Mr. Sifford has been employed as Vice Chairman of the Board since October 2021. From September 2019 to September 2021, Mr. Sifford served as Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Sifford also served as President and Chief Executive Officer from October 2012 to September 2019 and has been a Director since October 2012. Mr. Sifford served as Chief Merchandising Officer from October 2012 to March 2016. From June 2001 to October 2012, Mr. Sifford served as Executive Vice President – General Merchandise Manager and from April 1997 to June 2001, Mr. Sifford served as Senior Vice President – General Merchandise Manager. Prior to joining us, Mr. Sifford served as Merchandise Manager – Shoes for Belk, Inc.
Mr. Worden has been employed as President and Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Company since October 2021. From September 2019 to September 2021, Mr. Worden served as President and Chief Customer Officer and from September 2018 to September 2019, Mr. Worden served as Executive Vice President – Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Worden led the Northern European region for S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. (“SC Johnson”), a manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and products, and was responsible for revenue and share growth objectives across six countries from May 2014 to July 2018. Prior to that, Mr. Worden served as Assistant to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SC Johnson from May 2012 to May 2014 and as a Senior Marketing Director from 2009 to 2012. Mr. Worden also served as a Senior Brand Manager at Kimberly-Clark Corporation and held multiple marketing roles across its flagship brands during his tenure there from 2003 through 2009.
Mr. Scibetta has been employed as Senior Executive Vice President – Chief Merchandising Officer since March 2021. From March 2016 to March 2021, Mr. Scibetta served as Executive Vice President – Chief Merchandising Officer. From December 2012 to March 2016, Mr. Scibetta served as General Merchandise Manager. Prior to joining us, Mr. Scibetta served as Vice President, Divisional Merchandise Manager– Footwear for Belk, Inc. since 2008. From 2004 to 2007, Mr. Scibetta served as Vice President, Divisional Merchandise Manager – Footwear for Parisian Department Stores. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Scibetta served as Vice President, Divisional Merchandise Manager for Shoe Corporation of America. Mr. Scibetta began his retail career with Wohl Shoe Company in 1980.
Mr. Chilton has been employed as Executive Vice President – Chief Operating Officer since February 2023. From April 2021 to February 2023, Mr. Chilton served as our Executive Vice President – Chief Retail Operations Officer. From February 2020 to April 2021, Mr. Chilton served as our Senior Vice President – Store Administration and Development and from March 2019 to February 2020 served as our Senior Vice President – Store Operations and Administration. Mr. Chilton started with the Company in 1994 as a store manager and has served in roles of increasing responsibility in store management and operations since that time, including serving as the Vice President of our Northern Division, with approximately one-third of our stores reporting to him, from April 2012 until March 2019.
Mr. Edwards has been employed as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer since September 2023. He has also served as our Secretary since June 2021 and served as our Assistant Secretary from December 2019 to June 2021. Mr. Edwards served as our Vice President and Corporate Controller from October 2019 until September 2023 and was appointed an executive officer in March 2021 as our Chief Accounting Officer, serving in that role until September 2023. Prior to joining us, Mr. Edwards was Vice President of Accounting for CenterPoint Energy, Inc., a publicly traded utility company, from February 2019 to August 2019 following its acquisition of Vectren Corporation (“Vectren”), also a publicly traded utility company. For Vectren, Mr. Edwards held various leadership roles in the accounting, audit and finance functions from February 2001 through February 2019, including Vice President and Treasurer from April 2017 to February 2019 and Vice President of Corporate Audit from August 2013 to April 2017. Prior to joining Vectren, Mr. Edwards worked in public accounting. Mr. Edwards is a Certified Public Accountant.
Our executive officers serve at the discretion of the Board of Directors. There is no family relationship between any of our Directors or executive officers.
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.