Family footwear retailer Shoe Carnival is celebrating a successful fourth quarter and fiscal year through “a challenging retail environment”.

Net sales for the year totaled $1.1 billion, a 5.6 per cent decrease compared to the prior year. This decline in sales included a 5.6 per cent decline in comparable store sales.

Shoe Station, the company’s premium line, contributed 21 per cent of the total net sales for the year, growing 2.7 per cent from 2024. The company said this exceeded Shoe Carnival’s performance by 10.4 percentage points.

As part of a strategic rebranding, Shoe Carnival is pivoting towards its Shoe Station line, following its acquisition in 2024. Some 175 of Shoe Carnival’s 430 stores will be converted to Shoe Station, the company says.

Elsewhere, for the fifth consecutive fiscal year, Shoe Carnival managed to keep its gross profit margin above 35 per cent, with the year-end figure of 36.6 per cent.

“Fiscal 2025 demonstrated this organization’s ability to execute through a challenging retail environment,” Cliff Sifford, interim president and CEO, said.

“Shoe Station remains our primary growth vehicle. Our evolving rebanner strategy will be driven by our CRM customer data, which allows us to identify the markets within our current footprint that are best suited to the Shoe Station format, while also guiding our pursuit of new market opportunities for Shoe Station beyond our existing footprint.

“In markets where Shoe Carnival has historically been the dominant family footwear retailer, those stores will continue to operate under the Shoe Carnival banner.”