Walking Through Airports

Despite a flat performance in 2002 and the prospective closing of several underperforming stores, the Johnston & Murphy division of Genesco Inc. (Nashville, Tenn.) has expanded its airport retail base with a new store in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

That's the sixth Johnston & Murphy airport store. The others are in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Newark, N.J.

The shoe manufacturing and retailing division's net sales were up 2 percent for the quarter ending Feb. 1, 2003, and same-store sales declined 3 percent. For the full year, same-store sales were flat.

“Johnston & Murphy continued to be negatively impacted by a very promotional retail environment,” said Genesco president and ceo Hal Pennington. “We believe that we have put a strategy in place that will further Johnston & Murphy's strong brand equity and ultimately return the division to more acceptable levels of profitability.”