Foot Locker reports (impressive) second-quarter earnings & Skechers sued over sketchy model dealings

As previously reported, there are a few retailers showing signs of financial growth and stability, even in a tough economy. One of the more surprising was that of Footlocker Inc., which recently released its second-quarter earnings to show an impressive $37 million dollar profit. This makes the sixth consecutive quarter of positive growth for the athletic apparel and footwear retailer. A year prior, the company's second-quarter earnings showed only $6 million in profit.

"Our associates worldwide are doing an excellent job executing the initiatives of our strategic plan," said Ken C. Hicks, chairman and chief executive officer of Foot Locker, Inc., in a statement. "As a result, we were able to deliver strong sales and profit results in the second quarter, including a comparable store sales gain of 11.8 percent and earnings of 24 cents per share. The results over this longer time period encourage us to believe that we have the right strategies in place to create shareholder value on a sustained basis."

Since the top of the year, the company opened 35 new stores, remodeled/relocated 95 stores and closed 54 stores. At the end of July 2011, the company operated 3,407 stores in 22 countries in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition, 25 franchised stores were operating in the Middle East and South Korea.

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A $10 million dollar lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against Skechers USA Inc. by a group of models accusing the company of failing to pay for the use and global distribution of pictures of said models modeling the company's footwear.

"Skechers paid a small sum of money for only limited use of these images, for a limited amount of time," said David Shraga via statement, a lawyer from the Los Angeles firm Kawahito Shraga & Westrick, who is representing the 11 models. "Then it disregarded these limitations and embarked on a successful worldwide branding campaign that was built around the images of these young models."

The complaint alleges that Skechers "took advantage" of the models who would find it difficult to "discover the wrongdoing," since the majority of the ads ran in foreign countries.

The models are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. "The models are seeking no less than $10 million in compensation for Skechers' misappropriation of their likenesses," said the news release from Kawahito Shraga & Westrick.

A Skechers spokeswoman had no comment, stating the company does not comment on litigation.

This is the second lawsuit against the company to makes waves this year. The first was made by a woman who claimed the company's "Shape-Up" footwear caused her hip fractures.

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Retailers create jobs in a tough economy & Tod's steps up their profits

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the July Employment Situation Report, showing that the U.S. economy added 117,000 jobs in July, 26,000 of those attributed to retail's ramp up for back-to-school season. Health care, manufacturing, mining and construction were the areas responsible for the additional jobs. This growth drove the unemployment rate from 9.2 to 9.1 percent, an unexpected push in the right direction. Only 46,000 jobs were reportedly added in June.

According to the Labor Department, 8,600 positions were created in health and personal care stores; 3,900 jobs in general merchandise (i.e. Wal-Mart and Target); 5,400 in department stores and 3,000 in clothing and accessory stores.

"While positive retail jobs growth in July is another indicator that retailers are pulling their weight in this economic recovery, a strong jobs agenda would allow retailers to increase hiring on an even larger scale," said National Retail Federation President and CEO Matthew Shay.

“In short, these numbers are an improvement," began Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, in his Shopfloor blog. "After a couple weaker months of job growth, manufacturing employment is once again moving in the right direction, led by the durable goods sector. Hopefully, this bodes well for future growth in that sector.”

Still, Nigel Gault, the chief U.S. economist for forecaster IHS Global Insight, was unimpressed.“The July jobs report was not as bad as May and June. That's about the best that we can say for it," he said.

JULY BY THE NUMBERS:

• Government jobs, down 37,000.
• Financial services, down 4,000.
• Temporary help services, up 300.
• Transportation and warehousing, up 1,100.
• Construction, up 8,000.
• Leisure and hospitality, up 17,000.
• Manufacturing, up 24,000.
• Retail, up 25,900.
• Health care, up 31,300.
• Professional and business services, up 34,000.

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Tod's, the iconic brand known for its luxurious accessories and driving loafers, floored it past competition and boasted a 44.5% jump in the first half of its financial year.

"The results released today confirm the effectiveness of our strategy, which led to a sound and strong growth, both in terms of revenues and profitability, in line with our expectations," began Tod's chairman and CEO Diego Della Valle. "Therefore, I'm really confident in the group's ability to achieve its targets for the current year and to continue to grow both in sales and, even more, in profitability also in the next years."

All the group's brands, including Tod's, Hogan, Fay and Roger Vivier, posted growth rates in the first six months of the year described by the group as "outstanding."

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Mulberry’s Profits Multiply

In 1971, Roger Saul and his mother Joan started the British lifestyle company Mulberry. The luxury brand has seen much success and growth over its 40 years, but this has to be one of their largest year's yet, reporting their sales have quadrupled over the last 12-months.

The company's fame started with their handcrafted leather goods - handbags expressly - but now includes womenswear, menswear and most recently women’s shoes. They now have stores in the UK, all over Europe, America, Australia and Asia - where a lot of demand for the brand is being seen as of late.

In 2009, Emma Hill debuted her first collection with Mulberry as Creative Director. She was living in New York working with big design houses such as Calvin Klein, Gap, Chloe, Marc Jacobs, and Marc by Marc Jacobs. She told the Sunday Times in February of 2009, “ I can tell when a bag has been designed by a man, because it’s usually too heavy. Women design lighter bags because we know what it’s like to carry them.”

This year, after their 40th anniversary, Mulberry announced that their profits have quadrupled over the past year. The increase in sales came from opening 9 stores around the world, and just an accelerated growth internationally and online. Many credit the rapid growth with the company's new "It" bag, the "Alexa" satchel, seen above with the design house's inspiration for the bag and name, Alexa Chung. Another bag deserving much credit for the company's boost in sales is the Bayswater handbag, seen carried by many a starlets and socialites.

Godfrey Davis, the Chairman and Chief Executive of the company told Women’s Wear Daily “Strong demand in all markets has continued into the new financial year and the outlook for the Mulberry brand is positive. While we remain cautious about the global economic environment, we are focused on accelerating our international expansion."

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