The St. Louis-based parent company of Allen Edmonds plans to move the brand’s distribution center from Port Washington to a larger facility outside Nashville, executives said Tuesday.
Caleres Inc. has a 540,000-square-foot distribution center in Lebanon, Tennessee. The company currently leases a 38,000-square-foot distribution center in Port Washington.
Ken Hannah, Caleres chief financial offier, said Tuesday the company plans to relocate those operations during the fourth quarter of this year. The move will cost the company around 2 cents per share on its next quarterly earnings or roughly $840,000.
“We think that that’s worth a couple million dollars benefit next year to that business,” Hannah said of the relocation.
A Caleres spokesperson did not return an email regarding how many employees would be impacted by the decision.
Caleres acquired Allen Edmonds in late 2016 for $255 million. The company has since relocated the brand’s consumer-facing activities from Minnesota to St. Louis.
In September, Caleres announced plans to relaunch the brand with new products through collaborations with other American-made brands and a television advertising campaign.
Diane Sullivan, Caleres chief executive officer, said Tuesday the campaign, which included a $3 million investment and featured Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield, had increased traffic to Allen Edmonds stores and websites. However, “the key thing was that the conversion wasn’t quite where we had expected it to be,” she said.
Sullivan added that Caleres is currently evaluating whether it wants to continue investing in the new marketing efforts. She did say new products have been performing well and the company will continue to expand its more casual offerings.
“We think that’s going to be a very important part of how we’re going to continue to have (Mayfield) add other styles to his Allen Edmonds wardrobe,” she said.
